Friends are Useful
by Multipule-Characters1-Acct
Summary: In a dystopian future where 'friend' means 'tool to be gotten rid of when no longer useful', you live alone or you never sleep. When the product of this culture falls into a underground civilization where everyone is friends (the true meaning), it will come as a shock to both sides. And where is Frisk? (Also on Ao3!) (REWRITTEN UNDER THE TITLE 'Separation' !)
1. Prologue

**Mt. Ebbot (2099)**

One day, an orphan child went missing. Her name was Frisk.

Nobody actually noticed the disappearance of Frisk, but if they did, they would have never realized it was the beginning of the end.

It started with an earthquake mere hours after Frisk's disappearance. It wasn't a big one, but it did have unknown consequences. Namely, the mountain suffered a rock-slide and a scientist accidentally knocked a few vials of differing substances into a rat's cage.

A few days afterwards, the scientist found the rat. It had drastically boosted strength, stamina, and speed.

Testing began, and soon enough it had moved to humans

People could lift boulders around 1 ton, run for hours at thirty mph, and only at the cost of eating twice as much.

And then reports of zombies and skeletons roaming surfaced. And soon entire towns were being slaughtered, no matter what the military tried to do.

The people panicked.

As many nations as possible built as many factories as possible to create the 'superhuman' formula to combat this new threat. Those that could not build the factories fled to the ones that could and built walls to pay for their safety.

With the sudden increase in supply, and a deadly demand, all but a couple million in the remaining 3 billion were now super human.

However, health laws were disregarded in the panic to build the factories, and a thick layer of smog was created around the whole planet. The sun was prevented from shining, and everything was permanently overcast. Food started to run out. The formula sped up the metabolism, causing everyone who took it to need to eat more. With so many people in one place, unable to leave because they would get killed, someone would have to go out to the farms. It started with Death Row, then general prisoners, then anyone who had not taken the formula. They didn't last long.

The food was still running out, so anyone who was not protecting the cities was sent out to the farms. They actually lived for longer, but because it took such a long time to get the food back, some of the cities were dying, or took drastic measures. The survivors ran to other cities, but not everyone who fled came with good intentions. People were dying left and right and something had to be done. They dismantled all factories, no matter what they were making, to make room for farms. Empty buildings? Gone. Parks? Gone. Museums? If no one was using it for shelter, it was gone too. If it wasn't for use as shelter, it was torn down and made into a farm.

Because farming was the only job now, many people now had nothing to do. They were just eating food others needed. They were made useful, as scavengers sent out to gather anything that was left from the abandoned farms. not many came back. Even more were killed by the more radical people to use as fertilizer.

Then, one of the abandoned factories blew up. New creatures started to appear. What plants remained mutated into walking bombs set to use whatever they could kill as a food source for spores. They were called creepers for convenience. The spiders, the most common insect still around, grew to over six feet wide, and two feet tall.

Now, even the plants and bugs were trying to kill the humans. One thing that wasn't was old age. They could live up to 500 years, if nothing killed them first.

Two of the new 500 year generations later, someone spotted the skeletons and zombies burning in the sun. The Creepers stuck their roots back into the soil and the spiders became basically blind in the day. The smog had finally cleared enough for the sun to get through.

It didn't just dissipate though, it had created acid rain. New caves were everywhere and the remains of old humanity had reseeded the resources in the ground. What animals that were left roamed freely and the non mutated plants retook the land.

The world had changed and the humans with it, but not for the better.

It was found that if children were born with square eyes, they inherited the formula. Why? No one knew and they really didn't care to find out. The opposite was also true, and if they had round eyes, they were normal humans. Without the factories, there was no more formula. Round eyed children were labeled useless, and were killed. They weren't the only ones dying though, the crippled were too.

Needless to say, if you couldn't work to the level of everyone else, you were killed because you were useless.

When the world was no longer trying to kill them 24/7, the cities became much less crowded as the humans left to repopulate the world. But without the laws the cities provided, the thought process of 'kill the useless' was taken to its conclusion. If you were more useful to someone dead, you were killed. If you were more useful to someone alive, you were kept alive. The word 'friend' now meant you were 'useful and were going to be kept from dying if you were still useful'. The moment you lost your usefulness, you were dead. Marriage no longer had any love in it, if two people worked better together, they made babies.

A total of two thousand years after the earthquake that started it all, a child was born. Two hundred years later, our story starts.


	2. The Underground

Nafriskenta, or Nafi for short, looked pretty normal. Brown hair, brown eyes, five foot tall, wore a purple and pink striped shirt, had square eyes, and wore a cape with a large sword shaped patch sewn into it.

Overall, looked pretty normal for the time. Except for the cape, which attached to buttons on her shoulders. However, it was specifically designed to have many pockets, and when you're mining, you need somewhere to put the stuff your mining.

Nafi had a pretty simple morning routine.

1\. Wake up.  
2\. Check room for intruders.  
3\. Get up.  
4\. Check house for intruders.  
5\. Get breakfast.  
6\. Check for poisoning.  
7\. Eat.  
8\. Check outside through all five windows for intruders  
9\. Collect mining equipment and snacks.  
10\. Check for poisoning in snacks.  
11\. Check outside again.  
12\. Pack equipment and snacks in pockets on cape.  
13\. Put on cape.  
14\. Check outside again.  
15\. Leave and go mining.

It was simple, not short.

Nafi was probably the most paranoid person you would ever have the misfortune of meeting. Moments before you died because you ether snuck up on her or she would misinterpret the look on your face for evil intent. Either way, you're dead. Paranoia isn't her only personality trait, she is also very kind, spending her days not working watching the animals around the mountain and helping any who are injured.

From days past to today, the area around what was known as Mt. Ebbot was mostly unchanged. The forest was thicker and the mountain did look slightly like swiss cheese, but the land was relatively the same.

Because the mountain was so holey, Nafi loved using it as a mining ground and the thick forest as cover for the walk there, back, and any of her more odd time wasters.

You see, Nafi was not normal in any sense of the word, past or present.

For one, she was a vegetarian in a world where meat was basically the best food. Spending a thousand to two thousand years eating nothing but grain, fruit, and veggies probably had something to do with it.

Second, she was rabid about history books pertaining to before what was known as The Changing. Her grandparents lived in an old museum, and she spent a few years living there when she was younger. Because of this love, that was how she knew what she had third.

She had a cheat console and HUD. Not in a helmet, but just as powers she had.  
Swipe her arm while concentrating and the console popped up in front of her hand, squint and the HUD appeared in her vision. The console allowed her to create items, give existing items new effects called 'enchantments', and teleport to a preset destination.

The HUD allowed her to see the damage something could do to her, how much damage she could do to it, how much damage it could take, and where it was. That last one she didn't need to have line of sight, so it acted like a radar. The other three appeared as attack, defense, and health respectively. She could also check her own stats to check health.

Why could she do these things? She didn't know and she didn't care, it was useful for surviving. Still, sometimes she felt like she was living in a video game.

Back to the present, she climbed the mountain ready to continue mining, looking for a cave she had not been in yet. It didn't take that long actually, and before long, Nafi had started to mine the resources out of the walls, dropping torches as she went to light the way back.

She got very far in very quickly, almost to the middle of the mountain in almost an hour. Things were going well until she heard something behind her.

Nafi readjusted her grip on her special pickaxe. This tool was designed to switch between sword and pickaxe easily specifically for situations like this.

She switched the tool to sword mode as Nafi swung behind her, burying her sword deep in the side of the Enderman behind her.

Endermen were the one thing no one figured out where they came from. No one wanted to. Endermen could teleport and they had poisonous skin, to try and kill one was suiside.

Nafi slowly looked up at the Enderman as it screeched in pain, internally cursing herself for getting into this situation. With a shout, Nafi was thrown into the wall courtesy of the Enderman's swinging arm meeting her shoulder.

She was barely able to get her sword up in a defensive position before the Enderman was on her again. She batted away its attack and she swung at it, cutting the Enderman's arm off it's body.

The shock that it no longer had an arm allowed Nafi to scramble up and get farther away. Not far enough away however, as she fell to the floor courtesy of a leg sweep from the Enderman. Unluckily for the Enderman, Nafi had just enough control of her fall that she was able to fall backwards and stab the Enderman in the chest on the way down, wounding it considerably. It teleported off the sword and didn't come back.

Nafi stumbled to her feet, ready to call quits for the day. Her arm and leg stinging from the Enderman's poison. She checked her stats, 9/20 health. Good enough.

As she started walking she pulled out a homemade potato based ration bar from her cape to eat. She thanked her boots for keeping the poison off of more of her leg when the stinging got worse as she walked.

Maybe she got a concussion when she hit the wall or the poison was affecting her more than she thought, but as she walked she drifted into daydreams. In her daydreams, she never noticed that she made a wrong turn, heading deeper into the mountain and towards a very deep hole.

She barely stopped before she fell into the hole, snapping out of her thoughts and noticing it right before she would have stepped into the air. She moved to go around, but the ground had different ideas.

With a loud CRACK and a scream Nafi tumbled down the hole, losing consciousness when she landed.

* * *

Nafi smelled flowers. There were no flowers in her house.

She immediately reacted, tossing her body up to protect herself from danger. And almost immediately fell back on to the yellow flowers again due to pain.

The memories of her battle and fall came back.

"Son of a Creeper's spore sack!" She growled out in anger at herself.

Nafi retrieved her sword from where it had fallen, stashing it in it's special pocket in her cape, before looking around the cavern that she found herself in. She couldn't climb back up the hole, she was in too much pain. The only other way was to go forward, deeper into the cave.

With a groan and grumble, Nafi dragged herself through the cavern, never noticing that she passed by a pair of ruined pillars.

It was dark, yet there were no undead. Nafi was thankful for that, she had no torches left and she probably couldn't run away in her current state.

She finally found a small patch of light, illuminating a yellow six petal flower.  
"Howdy!"

Nafi reached for a weapon, before her injuries made themselves known. She held back a grunt.

"I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!"

Truly, the plant was talking.

"Hmmm... You're new to the UNDERGROUND, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little old me will have to do. Ready? Here we go!"

Suddenly there was a floating red and green dual colored heart in front of her. Flower looked surprised for all of a second before going back to smiling. She squinted at the suspicious flower bringing up her HUD. 10 defense, 10 attack, 10 health. Easy killing.

As she was doing that, Flowey continued talking, "See that heart? That is your soul, the very culmination of your being!"

She checked the heart and got her own stats, so the flower wasn't lying about that.

He continued to talk, "Your soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV. What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

The flower flicked his leaves and small white pellets materialized and started floating towards her.

"Down here, LOVE is shared through... little white... "friendliness pellets." Are you ready? Move around! Get as many as you can!"

Nafi forced down her pain and jumped to the side, dodging the pellets. Replying for the first time, "Even if you didn't give me the creeps, why would I trust something being nice?"

The flower again was surprised, but it only lasted a second before his face morphed into something demonic.

"So you do know what's going on here! DIE!"

The pellets circled her, giving her no chance to escape.

She was reaching for her sword despite the pain when the pellets suddenly disappeared. A fireball came out of nowhere, barely missing the flower as he ducked into the earth.

"What a horrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth," said an anthropomorphic goat wearing a purple dress, in almost a motherly tone.

Nafi moved back quickly, trying to get away from the fire slinging goat. But she tripped, letting out an involuntary groan as her injuries made themselves known from her new position in the floor.

The goat gasped, "My child! Your hurt! Let me help you."

Nafi was unable to move back as the goat descended on her with glowing green hands. She resigned herself to her fate, until her injuries started to heal. Nafi squinted at the goat as she asked, "Why are you being so nice? What do you want from me?"

80 defense, 80 attack, 700 health. Definitely not getting on her bad side.

The goat had a surprised look as she asked, "Is life on the surface so horrible that you question someone helping you?"

Nafi gave a look somewhere between a glare and an incredulous stare, but stayed silent. A beat of silence passed before she asked another question, "What's your name?"

"I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. I pass through every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to fall in a very long time." replied the now named Toriel. She pulled Nafi to her feet when she was healed, and motioned for her to follow.

"Come, I will show you through the catacombs." Toriel walked off through another tunnel.

Nafi rubbed where the Enderman had poisoned her, marveling at the fact it was healed. She looked after Toriel, seeing the goat had stopped and was waiting for her.

She sighed to herself, "I'm going to regret this..."

Nafi followed Toriel.


	3. The Ruins

Nafi followed Toriel into the next room.

It was very purple.

She liked purple as much as the next person, but this was a little ridiculous. Literally the only things not purple was the red leaves laying between the two staircases on the other side of the room, and Toriel's white fur.

Toriel climbed the stairs on the right side, stopping at the top to wait for Nafi to catch up. She didn't have to wait long as Nafi quickly ran up the stairs, not wanting to lose the purple dressed goat in the sea of purple bricks.

As they entered the next room, Nafi was yet again greeted with purple assaulting her eyeballs. This time however, there was a purple door at the other end of the room, set in a darker purple door frame. On the floor was a light purple path, two lighter purple switches on the path, four off the path - two on either side.

"Welcome to your new home innocent one," Toriel said, "Allow me to educate you in the operation of the Ruins."

Nafi wondered what Toriel mentioned by new home as the goat moved to the switches on the floor, stepping on the four on the outside and finishing with flicking a yellow - glorious yellow! - switch that had been previously hidden behind her. The door opened.

"The Ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and door keys. One must solve them to move from room to room. Please adjust yourself to the sight of them," Toriel said as she moved into the open doorway.

Nafi drank in the sight of the yellow in the mass of purple, before moving to follow Toriel. She got distracted by a purple sign on the purple wall, and stopped to read it.

"Brave ones, foolish ones, both walk not the middle road."

She raised an eyebrow at the obvious answer and continued on her way.

They entered the next room, this one with slightly less purple in the form of two small canals full of water running across the room bridged by brown wooden bridges. Oh, and three yellow switches, two covered in writing in the wall across from them.

Toriel walked over to a sign, "To progress, you will need to trigger several switches. Do not worry, I have labeled the ones you need to flip."

Taking a moment to read the sign ("Stay on the path!"), Nafi easily flipped the labeled switches causing spikes that had barred the way to retract. Why did she have to do this? Those were easily stepped over.

"Splendid! I'm proud of you! Let's move on to the next room," said Toriel as she walked past.

Nafi was silently fuming. These were considered traps? These were easy! Did Toriel want to die or did she just not realize the danger she was in?

In the next room was a training dummy.

Toriel turned to Nafi. "As a human living down here, monsters may attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple, when you encounter a monster you will enter a fight. While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation and I will come to resolve the conflict."

Nafi stayed silent despite her many questions.

"Practice talking to this dummy." Toriel indicated said dummy.

It looked… like a dummy.

She squinted at it and brought her HUD up.

Attack 0, defense 0, health 10. Why is she getting stats from an inanimate object?

The green and red heart appeared and she immediately pulled out her sword, looking for the flower but aiming it at the dummy.

Toriel interrupted her semi panicked searching, "Oh no! Dummies are not for fighting! They are for talking."

Nafi slowly put her sword away once she was certain there was no harm in doing so. She stared at the dummy for a moment, before speaking. "Hello, how are you."

Toriel smiled, and the heart disappeared. "Good job! Follow me."

Nafi glanced around the room again before following.

The next room was a very long room with a winding path.

"There is another puzzle in this room, I wonder if you can solve it." Toriel mused to herself.

They moved through the room, Toriel getting to the end before Nafi, when suddenly a large white frog jumped out. Nafi almost sliced the frog's head off, but with animals her first instinct is not to kill them. It was only when she was putting her sword away that she realized the heart was out again.

Activating her HUD once again, she looked around for the flower. She quickly had to dodge what looked like… flies? Why were extinct bugs here? Much less attacking her? She slid out of the way again and looked at them, yet never got a stat. She turned to look at the frog, to check if her HUD still worked, to see Toriel chasing the frog away with a glare.

Ignoring Toriel's repeat stats, Nafi glanced around the room for more flies but didn't see anything else.

They continued through the room and walked past a sign that Nafi quickly read.

"The eastern room is the western room's blueprint."

Before she could wonder what that meant they came out to a room of spikes, surrounded by water.

"This is the puzzle, but…" Toriel started before being interrupted by Nafi brushing past her and jumping into the knee-deep water and walking to the other side. She climbed up on to the other side and looked back at the surprised Toriel. Nafi waited for her to walk through the spike maze, constantly looking around for attackers. She would not be caught off guard again.

When Toriel got to the other side, she said, "Well that's one way to do it…"

They moved into the next room, yet another long one with a winding path, and Toriel stopped and looked at Nafi. "I was going to test your independence in this room. However, from your show in the other room, I believe you are independent enough. I must attend to some business, and you must be alone for a while. Please remain here, it is dangerous to explore by yourself."

With all of her strength, Nafi prevented herself from snorting.

Toriel didn't notice and continued, "I have an idea, I will give you a cell phone. If you need anything, just call. Be good alright?"

Nafi nodded and looked at the cellphone as Toriel walked away. She walked up to a pillar at the end of the hall and sat down to fiddle with it.

Wait, some of these buttons look familiar.

She called on her console, and observed the buttons. Ok, so they weren't exactly the same, but the console looked like an old keyboard and the… what was it called? Oh right, the num-pad looked really close to the phone buttons.

As she put the console away, she saw movement back down the hallway. Her bow was in her hand and an arrow notched in less time than it took to fire it. The arrow hit something, and pinned a yellow flower petal to the ground. She cursed herself for not checking to see if anyone was near before opening the console. She put her bow away, and checked to see if the 'infinity' enchantment worked. Yep, still have all her arrows. Nice to know.

She turned her attention back to the phone and after a few minutes pushing all the buttons, she stood up and left the room. Almost immediately the phone rang. Thankfully, Nafi did figure out how to answer the phone.

"Hello? This is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?"

"I looked outside," Nafi replied.

"Well, please stay there. There are a few puzzles I have yet to explain and it would be dangerous to solve them by yourself."

Nafi rolled her eyes, "If you say so."

"Thank you. Be good, alright?"

*Click*

Nafi heard nothing else from the phone. She finally removed it from her ear, and continued walking, down the hall to her left.

It was a dead end with a bowl of… something, surrounded by water on all sides of the room. She decided that she didn't want to know what it was. She turned around and walked in the other direction.

"Ribbit, Ribbit. (Thank goodness I found you. I'm not as young as I used to be.)"

Nafi jumped, activating HUD and looking around wildly. She spotted a frog next to the door.

"Ribbit, Ribbit. (Excuse me human, I have some advice for battling monsters.)"

Nafi forcibly calmed herself down. "Which is?"

"Ribbit, Ribbit. (If you act a certain way, or fight till you almost defeat them, they may not want to battle you anymore. If a monster does not want to fight you, please… use some mercy, human.)"

Nafi nodded slowly, she would keep that in mind. The frog hopped away. She got back on track.

To the right of where she first came in was more hallway, this time with leaf piles dotted around the walls. She continued down, coming to the end of the short hall quickly and turned left into another room. She barely stopped before she stepped on a weak area of floor, marked by very obvious cracks across the tiles. Nafi jumped over it and landed next to another one of the frogs. The hear-, soul not heart, her soul appeared and she had to restrain the instinct to pull out her sword and slice the thing's head off.

With great effort, she grit out, "Hello, I like frogs." The frog was obviously confused but blushed anyway and hopped off. The soul disappeared.

Nafi walked away, on guard, HUD on, and ration making its way to her mouth.

Who knows what else lives here.

* * *

*Ring Ring* "Hello?"

"Hello! This is Toriel. For no reason in particular, do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch."

"... Both, I guess?"

"Great! Thank you. Be good!" *Click*

"...What's cinnamon? Or butterscotch?"

* * *

The next time the phone rang, Nafi was staring at a dead tree. The traps in the later part of the Ruins fluctuated from easy to hard, and she definitely sprained her wrist falling down one of the holes. It didn't help that she had tripped into a wall fighting a living vegetable.

It's honestly by chance that no one ended up dead and everyone walked away from her happy. Especially since she definitely didn't heed the frogs advise on more than one occasion.

Although the ghost was a new one. Good thing he could just be jumped over.

Nafi reached for the phone, before Toriel came walking around the tree, hanging up quickly once she saw Nafi.

"Oh, my child! Are you hurt?"

Nafi tried to hide the sprained wrist from the mothering gaze, but it was in vain. Toriel healed the wrist, and a few other scrapes and bruises. Nafi pulled away as soon as she was healed, looking around the tree at the homely cottage. "That is your home?" Toriel disguised her hurt at Nafi's rejection and put on a smile. "Yes, come on in, I have a room prepared for you."

Nafi followed her into the home, her nose immediately smelling the unmistakable scent of a lived-in home and cooking pastry and her eyes were finally freed from the assaulting purple. They turned right and Toriel opened the first door they came to. "This will be your room for the time being, please make yourself comfortable."

Nafi cautiously entered the room, as Toriel sniffed the air and ran off yelling, "My pie!"

She checked over the room, under everything, in everything, on everything, and just to be safe, did it again three times. Only after this did she dare to take off her cape. She pulled out another ration and finally slid onto the bed after finishing. Gripping an arrow as a weapon, she faced the door with her back against the wall, and drifted off.

* * *

Nafi was asleep one second and the next she was awake as Toriel moved into the room.

She gripped the arrow tighter, but otherwise stayed still. Toriel did nothing but put a plate on the floor.

Toriel looked at the occupant on the bed, taking in the arrow and protective position and felt anger at whoever made this child need to sleep in such a way. She left the room quickly.

Nafi sat up and looked at the pie. Her stomach growled it's want and she scrambled out of bed, privately glad that she decided to take a small bottle of her poison antidote. Checking the pie for poisons, she took a bit on her finger and dripped the antidote on it. She could still taste the bitter antidote so it wasn't poisoned. Then, she proceeded to stuff the entire pie slice in her mouth, eating it as fast as possible and uncaring that it was still hot. It was really delicious.

Once finished, she snuck out of the room, using her HUD to find Toriel quickly. She was in an adjacent room. Nafi grabbed her cape and snuck in the opposite direction, following the scent of pie.

Through the entryway and through the living room to the kitchen she went, when her eyes looked upon the majesty that was the rest of the pie.

"Oh, my, diamonds. That is one big pie."

Immediately she started to raid the cabinets for containers to put the pie in. It took seven of the biggest containers she could find, but she now had the entire pie in the cape.

Then she heard a noise. It wasn't a loud noise, but it was there. HUD up and scanning, she caught Toriel heading back to her room. Had she been watching?

Creeping back through the house, she came up to Toriel's room. Hearing more movement in her room and remembering the fireballs, Nafi decided to take a look at the third door in the hallway, the one marked 'under renovation'.

It was locked, but that didn't matter when she was able to just force the knob to turn. It was… under renovation. There was supplies strewn everywhere, but what she did notice was the fact that there were pictures everywhere of other humans. Taking a moment to count, she concluded there was six other humans the goat had taken care of. On her own at least. There was one picture she found that had two other goats taking care of a seventh child. In the far back was a blurred picture, but what it was about was anyone's guess.

What really caught her attention was their faces. In every picture everyone... everyone was happy.

Nafi put everything back, closing the door behind her. She peered into Toriel's room and stared at the sleeping form, contemplating.

"You did nothing but help. You could have killed me many times, yet you didn't. You lost so much, you don't deserve to lose what you have left. By my hand or anyone else's on the surface." She closed her eyes and sighed deeply, trying hard not to think about the lives ended by the culture and her own hands, moving out of the room.

"No one did."

Nafi walked back towards the living room. There were books to read.

When Toriel left her room a few hours later, she found Nafi reading her books with another slice of the pie half eaten and what was left in the containers next to it. From the looks of it, Nafi had made significant headway into the shelf and the pie. Toriel smiled even as Nafi gave her zero attention over the book.

Toriel walked towards the kitchen, "I'll make another pie."

* * *

Nafi was very confused. Toriel had a distressing amount of chances to kill her over the past few days, and never took a single one. She didn't even seem to notice them! That's not to mention the lack of undead, even the dark areas. Sure, spiders were down here, but they were the pre-Change small kind. No zombies, no creepers, and no endermen and endermen could get everywhere. Toriel said that there were also skeletons down here, but not like the ones on the surface. Her paranoia was acting up considerably, and the books and pie wouldn't keep her here much longer.

Toriel on the other hand didn't know what to feel. What little she could get out of Nafi about the surface did not paint a pretty picture. What she did know was that Nafi was not to be trusted around other monsters until she stopped going for a weapon every time her soul appeared. That and she was very good at fixing things like the door she broke that day she first arrived.

Finally, the day arrived that Toriel was dreading dawned. The day when Nafi wanted to leave the Ruins.

It started as any normal day, but that normalcy was broken during her time with her pun partner.

"And he said 'these are in-crab-able crabs!'"

The voice on the other side of the door started howling with laughter.

Toriel spotted Nafi walking down the hall towards her. Clearing her throat to get his attention, she said "Excuse me for a moment, I have something to attend to."

She called to Nafi, "Do you need anything?"

Nafi did nothing more than glance in the direction of the door, before she got right to the point, "I would like to leave now."

Toriel sighed and said, "I was afraid of that."

Nafi straightened up, "I will go through you." She squashed the flash of guilt as she said that.

Toriel nodded, ignoring the worried questions through the door.

Nafi pulled out her sword and held it tightly with still hands.

Toriel conjured fireballs in each hand.

Nafi's soul appeared.

There was a moment of silence. Then both of them attacked at the same time, Nafi with her sword ready and Toriel chucking fireballs. Nafi batted a fireball away with her sword and sliced at Toriel who dodged it.

Nafi continued to press her attack, slicing over and over again in a desperate attempt to end this quickly, with Toriel barely dodging every blow. Toriel, in an effort to get Nafi away, was raining fireballs down upon her. Nafi jumped back when one got too close for comfort and started dodging, now on the back foot.

Toriel kept up the fireball blitz for a good minute, before she had to stop from exhaustion. Nafi watched with cold eyes as Toriel fell to a knee and barely held herself up.

"So, this is it," Toriel laughed to herself, "This is how I die." Nafi had no outward reactions other than heavy breathing from exertion.

"I tried to protect you. Understand you and help you. I see now I am not the one who can. You protect yourself, I cannot understand you, and the help you need I cannot give." Toriel looked up at Nafi. "I hope I at least gave you comfort."

Toriel hung her head as Nafi walked towards her. She looked upon Toriel with sorrow and well-hidden shame. She didn't want to do this, but she saw no other choice.

When she reached Toriel, she said, "You did. For what it's worth, I wish it never came to this. Thank you, and I'm sorry." Nafi raised her sword, even in this emotional situation her hand was steady and her eyes were clear of the tears that threatened to come. "You're forgiven," Toriel responded. Single tear made its way down Nafi's cheek and she swung her sword down with a shout.

Then the door exploded and something hit Nafi in the temple. She hit the ground hard, barely able to do more than reach for her sword before she lost her fight with the black creeping at the edge of her vision.

In the seconds before she blacked out, she thought, "Well that's one way of getting past that door."


	4. Snowdin and Skeletons

Nafi went from blissfully unconscious, to painfully awake in a split second. She sat up quickly and immediately regretted it, as her head pounded and only by sheer force of will did she not throw up.

She pushed through the pain and tried her best to observe her surroundings.

She was in a not very well-made cell, the bars between her and her cape. It looked like it was missing her sword, but the pockets looked untouched. There were two windows, both sealed because of snow on the outside, and she was on a dog bed, a dog bowl full of spaghetti sat nearby.

The sight of food made her stomach growl with a painful reminder that the last time she ate was an hour before her fight with… with

Who did she fight? Why couldn't she remember?

Doesn't matter at the moment, she's hungry. She would have liked the food or antidote in her cape, but she was in no position to get over there. What she could get to was the dog bowl. She crawled her way over, stuffed her hands in, and started eating. It wasn't good, but she had eaten worse to survive. She still occasionally got nauseous when looking at zombies.

"HUMAN! I DID PROVIDE YOU WITH UTENSILS!"

Nafi snapped her head up and scooted back as far as she could. There was a skeleton, and she was weaponless. Even if she had weapons, she was barely staying conscious. This was really, really bad.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO STARTLE YOU HUMAN. YOU DON'T LOOK TOO GOOD, DO I NEED TO GET THE ASGORE CLONE?"

"Shut u-up..." Nafi croaked, holding her head in pain. The voice was loud, and it made her head hurt more.

She heard the door closing and she crawled closer to the spaghetti. She didn't make it before the door opened again.

"Child!"

Was that-?

Nafi clutched her head as the memories of living with Toriel finally came back, ending with her fight. Didn't Toriel die? Why was she… where were… she can't think...

She curled into a ball as the goat mother ran to her. "Where does it hurt?"

"H-head..." She whimpered. This was why she tried to avoid head injuries, they were ridiculously painful and impaired everything.

As Toriel worked on healing, Nafi saw the skeleton behind her and tried to choke out a warning.

"Tor…"

She didn't get beyond the first syllable before she lost the fight with unconsciousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Nafi drifted between asleep and awake, she mused that she really needed to stop hitting her head. As she climbed closer to awareness, she wondered if that truly was Toriel, or a phantom created by her damaged head.

Didn't matter much, the skeleton probably killed her if Nafi didn't… but wait, didn't Toriel say that there were friendly skeletons? She hoped that Toriel was correct and didn't throw away her life on a delusion.

She opened her eyes with great difficulty, but at least her head wasn't pounding anymore. It was more of a dull throb.

She looked around. She was still in the cell, but at least she was on an actual mattress. It was even one of those good ones with the springs.

"you up? great."

Nafi looked over, and immediately rolled into a defensive position behind the mattress. A squint activated the HUD and with it came a flash of pain.

1 attack, 1 defense, 1 health, the weakest skeleton she ever laid eyes on. Shortest too, if she was being honest.

"hey, no need for that. i don't have any Bones to pick with you."

She glanced around the room for whoever was speaking - because it obviously wasn't the skeleton because it's mouth wasn't even moving - and for a weapon. When she focused back to where the skeleton was, it was gone.

She relaxed slightly and scrambled up to made a beeline for her cape. It took a few false starts walking and fiddling with the buttons, but she got it on and checked for her sword, bow, and arrows. They weren't there.

"Oh, this won't be good..."

"Child!"

Nafi whipped around, hand automatically reaching for a sword that wasn't there, and got a face full of fur as Toriel gave her a crushing hug. "Ni to se ou oo," Nafi said through a mouth of fur.

She pulled back to get a good look at the motherly goat, and to clear her mouth of fur. There were many bandages around the right arm holding it against her chest, and the right shoulder was completely smothered in them. Nafi sighed in relief, she missed Toriel's head, she didn't kill her.

Nafi hugged Toriel this time, making sure to avoid the arm. "I thought I killed you..." She whispered

"well you almost did."

The only warning Toriel had that something was going to happen was Nafi tensing, before she was picked up and whipped around so Nafi stood between her and the short skeleton.

"Skeleton." Nafi said with anger and loathing. "Where is your bow?" Same anger and loathing, but tiny bit of curiosity too.

"Tibia honest I've never owned a bow. I own a trom-Bow-ne though."

Now Nafi was even more confused, a skeleton without a bow? A skeleton with an old musical instrument? A skeleton that could talk? If that other loud thing that she vaguely remembered was not this skeleton, that would make two talking skeletons.

Toriel put a hand on her shoulder. "Child, remember how I said skeletons down here are not like the ones on the surface? He helped us, and his name is Sans."

"yo."

Nafi didn't react for a second, then jerkily nodded her head but didn't relax more than putting her hands down. Her stomach then growled.

Very loudly.

Toriel giggled, "I made pie earlier, let's go eat." She walked around the short skeleton,Nafi following. She stopped long enough to whisper to Sans, "I'll be watching you," before moving on. Toriel's pie shouldn't wait.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, there were two skeletons. No, neither of them wielded bows, much less knew how to use one. No, they would not give her weapons back until she stopped trying to reach for them when one of them showed up. No, she was not healed yet, so Toriel would not let her leave.

All in all, a bad situation.

Not to mention the shock of finding out she could have killed Toriel if she was any less regretful of doing the deed… for some reason. She has no idea how that worked but she was grateful for it.

Then Nafi almost killed Toriel again, by hugging her too hard. That was embarrassing.

Another issue was the skeleton brothers only had two beds. Sans had given her his bed when she was out cold. They did have a couch though. Good thing she was fine with sleeping on the floor, so Toriel got the couch. She did protest this arrangement, but not only did Nafi show she didn't get a choice by picking her up and holding her down on the couch, the skeletons also pointed out she was more damaged than Nafi. Being a boss monster ment that normal healing magic didn't exactly work well on her, and she was spending all of her magic healing Nafi's head injury. But all of this magical healing had issues for Nafi's system.

Healing took a lot of energy, but most of it was already being used by the rest of her body. So many times throughout the night, she had to get up and eat a meal. Not only did this ruin her sleep, but she only packs so much food for a mining expedition.

She ruffled through her cape's pockets, searching for more ration bars. She only found one, carrot based, but it had been ruined when she had landed on it when she had fallen down the hole. It was disgusting and soaked into the fibers. She forced herself to eat the squished and linty carrot ration and walked into the kitchen to see if she could make more. There were no carrots or watermelons, but there were potatoes and beetroot. She pulled out all the required ingredients and started making the ration bars.

Normally, she could just make three of each of the four types and have leftovers when she got back home, but not knowing how long until she got another chance and only having the materials for two flavors, she made eight of both.

There was a knocking sound and Nafi glanced over her shoulder to see Toriel.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked.

"I could ask the same of you," Toriel replied

Nafi finished making the rations, but she had to let them dry before putting them in her cape pocket. That and she had to clean the pocket out.

"Been getting hungry more often. Ran out of food. Last one had been crushed."

She sat down at the table and tried to turn out the food pocket, but was stopped by the stuff in the other pockets. She started to pull things out, and Toriel watched as Nafi pulled out wood planks, a coal bag, an ore bag, lots of stone and some flint.

"Why do you need all that?" Toriel asked.

Nafi never even glanced up when she automatically responded, "I'm a miner. I mine."

She finished pulling everything out and turned the food pocket inside out, showing the orange crumbs and paste that covered the inside.

Toriel tilted her head, confused. "Why would you need to mine, couldn't you be something else?"

She didn't even stop to think, "I could be a farmer, but mining gets me more resources that I, and others need. Farming doesn't get me stone or coal or ores to fix walls and weapons. Selling what I don't need to wandering traders gets me things I do, but otherwise couldn't get myself," Nafi said. It was obvious she wasn't paying any attention to what questions she answered.

Toriel looked up and saw the skeleton brothers looking over the railing from the second floor. An idea occurred to her and, although she felt horrible for exploiting Nafi's sleep deprivation induced autopilot, Toriel asked, "I'm guessing the weapons are for the undead. What are skeletons like on the surface?"

"Skeletons are ranged, undead humanoid hostile undead equipped with bows. To kill them you either also use a bow, or use hit and run tactics. The best place to hit is the spine or the skull. All they drop when killed is one to three bones, and zero to two arrows, with the occasional intact skull. The rest poofs into smoke. The bones are good for making bone meal and bone blocks. Bone meal is good for dyeing things white or growing things quicker. Bone blocks are only good for decoration or supports. Arrows are obvious, and the skull is useful only for decoration."

Toriel didn't know how to react to the sudden deluge of information, and neither didn't the skeleton brothers. What first hit them though, was that there was no information on personalities or anything of the sort, only information about how to kill them and what to do when they're dead.

Toriel eventually snapped out of it. "Haven't you tried talking with them?"

Nafi finally paused as she realized just what she had been saying, but she only sighed as she finished cleaning her cape. "They do not speak, they only attack. Nothing stops them attacking."

She turned the cape back right side out and started depositing every back in. It was an uncomfortable silence as she worked and everyone else left to go to bed. Finished cleaning up, she checked the wetness of the bars and tossed them in her cape once she determined they were done, eating one of the beetroot bars.

She climbed back into her makeshift pallet on the floor, leaving the house in complete silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The events that happened that night were not spoken of, but they were most definitely thought about.

Papyrus was being Papyrus and thinking about how to make friends with the surface skeletons. At least he was being smart and planning on doing it from a safe distance.

(He wondered where the other skeletons we're when he got up to the surface the other times. Maybe Frisk would help him, wherever she was?)

Sans was trying his hardest not to think about it. He failed often, wondering how many of those undead monsters died to give the human a LV of 35. It didn't help that the poof of smoke line reminded him of dust on the wind. With how high that number was, she could kill everyone in the underground in one swing. Such a high LV for a kind soul, even if it was mixed with determination. At one point he wondered if it was a determination to be kind.

(She was so close, yet so far from the child he remembered in other timelines. What happened? Where did Frisk go?)

Toriel had it the worst. She knew how hard it was to survive up there from what Nafi had told her, but it hadn't hit her till now what that meant. Nafi was forced to use everything she could to survive in a world that rooted for her death at every turn, even if that meant using the bodies of fallen enemies, human and undead alike.

Toriel lived during the Monster/Human war, she knew sometimes you must kill to survive. Even then, she never thought of using the remains of those fallen in battle. Sometimes, she even wondered how Nafi would be able to use monster dust.

( In the part of her that remembered the resets, she wondered if that was why her determined child never came. Did she die before she ever came down because she refused to kill?)

For Nafi, life fell into a routine, waiting until she got her weapons back so she could leave. She also remembered what happened that night, and she wasn't all that happy with being manipulated like that, even if it was only slightly.

She wandered around Snowdin and the permanently open Ruins and talked with everyone, if only to spend time. Eventually, a problem someone had would come up, and Nafi's kind heart couldn't stand not helping.

Although she still couldn't stand that annoying dog

Then came the day that they gave back the weapons, or technically, weapon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Standing near the entrance to Waterfall, Nafi looked over her sword with a practiced eye, and after finding no major wear and tear, switched it to pickaxe and did the same. It would need repairing, but a pick was not needed in this situation.

She switched it back, put away the sword, and reached for the bow. At least, what there was of it.

The bow was covered in an odd film and was covered in bite marks.

Nafi asked, "What happened to my bow?"

"you would not bow-lieve us if we told you," Sans started.

"IT WAS THAT MEDDLING CANINE'S FAULT," Papyrus interrupted and finished.

Nafi was silent for a moment, staring at the destroyed bow, before sighing. "What ever happened, this is no good for anything other than firewood now."

"BUT IT STILL LOOKS USEABLE?" Papyrus observed.

Nafi explained, "With the bite marks the wood has been compromised."

She demonstrated by pulling the string back and the wood broke in half. "It's just some sticks now."

She tossed the pieces into a cape pocket.

As she moved through the snow towards the exit, she called over her shoulder, "Say goodbye to Toriel for me. If you want to talk, she has my number."

The brothers waved goodbye. Sans took a shortcut to his next job, and Papyrus headed to his rendezvous with Undyne.

As Nafi walked through a sudden fog, her foot hit stone, not snow.


	5. Waterfall

Nafi waved away the fog, taking in the sight of the tall blue rocks and glowing stones in the ceiling. Walking past a fish monster talking to a blue flower and an empty sentry station, she came upon a waterfall throwing rocks down into a hole. She carefully made her way to the other side.

She ducked into a patch of grass and squinted her HUD open. The monster Kid who lived in Snowdin was hiding here, and someone stood on a ledge above her. If only she had line of sight. She ducked down and hid as Papyrus walked up to the ledge person.

"HELLO UNDYNE. I'M HERE FOR MY REPORT."

Nafi held her breath to prevent a gasp. The captain of the royal guard Undyne?

"A-AH, NO. THE HUMAN LEFT."

Papyrus was conspiring with the royal guard? The one that wanted to kill her? She reached for her bow only to be reminded that it was broken.

"NO! THERE IS NO NEED TO KILL HER, SHE'S FRI-… YES UNDYNE…"

Ok, not wanting to kill her. "I am going to get some answers out of him."

Undyne moved, Nafi hadn't realized she said that out loud. Staying utterly still, she waited until Undyne no longer showed up on her HUD.

Letting out a sigh of relief, she deactivated her HUD and continued forward out of the grass on the other side, Kid following close behind. "Did you see that Miss Nafi! Undyne looked right at me!"

"So, she did. Aren't you supposed to be at home?"

"I let Mom know I was out, so they don't worry."

"If you say so."

Kid ran away, tripping but getting up quickly, to continue his search for Undyne.

After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Nafi swiped open her console

/give Nafriskenta bow

In a flash of light, a new bow sat in her hand.

/enchant infinity

Another flash and imperceptible runes were engraved on the inside of the bow. She put away her console as she reached for an arrow to test the bow. She shot towards the ledge where Undyne and Papyrus has their talk, an arrow quivered in the stone and an arrow was still in her hand.

Nafi admired the bow. "Well aren't you a shiny diamond."

She put away the bow and the arrow and started walking.

* * *

*ring ring*

"Hello?"

"HELLO HUMAN! I CALLED WITH A QUESTION."

"Spill."

"WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?"

"My normal clothes. W-."

*click*

"Papyrus?"

* * *

"Wishing room?"

She tapped a blue flower and jumped back when it started to talk. "I wish I could see real stars."

Another, "I wish my mommy didn't fall down."

Another, "I wish I could see the sun."

She ran through the room, followed by the voices of all the monsters that the flowers repeated.

After the last of the voices was left behind, she sat next to what she faintly remembered the history books calling a telescope to catch a breather. She ignored the tears trailing down her face.

* * *

"Wosh yo face?"

"I already thanked you for your help on the telescope puzzle, now leave me alone."

"Wosh yo tears?"

"I was not crying, leave me alone!"

* * *

She stepped off a floating panel and onto a large dock area and immediately had to dodge a spear. Giving Undyne no chance to attack again, Nafi took off running.

Undyne kept hiding behind trees while throwing her spears so Nafi had no good shots for arrows or a stat check. It didn't help that the dock weaved back and forth so she had to focus on where she put her steps.

Who made this stuff!? It served no useful purpose!

She ran off the dock area and slid into some reeds to hide.

Undyne walked up as Nafi readied her bow, knowing she would have only one shot at this. Undyne stuck her hand in the reeds and pulled out Kid, unknowingly putting him between her and the arrow. She put him down and walked off, prompting Nafi to stand up and walk out of the reeds.

Kid ran up behind her. "Did you see that Miss Nafi!? Undyne touched me! I'm never washing my face again!"

Nafi opened her mouth, but Kid ran off before she could say anything.

She made a fist and berated herself for not noticing Kid was in the reeds with her.

"I'm getting sloppy," she said as she punched the air in frustration. She took a deep breath to calm down and continued the way she was going.

* * *

Soon, she passed by some cheese encased in crystal. It reminded her of her empty stomach, so she pulled out a ration and moved forward. In the next room, she came upon Sans.

"hey ya."

Nafi swallowed the food that was in her mouth. "Didn't I leave you at the start of Waterfall?"

Sans shrugged, "i know some shortcuts. want to join me for grillby's?"

Nafi nodded as she stuffed the rest of her ration in her mouth. Food was always good.

"great, follow me."

She did so, wondering why they were going in the opposite direction, when suddenly they were walking in the entrance of Grillby's. She choked a bit in surprise.

If she didn't have food in her mouth, she would have yelled 'Did you just teleport!?', but since she did have food in her mouth she just screamed internally as she followed Sans to the bar.

"i'll take some fries. you want burger or fries?"

She swallowed. "Fries also please."

Grillby nodded and walked away.

Nafi turned to Sans, and whisper yelled, "I have multiple questions."

"shoot."

She swore he was silently laughing. "One, why can you teleport? Two, why was Papyrus talking with Undyne about my capture? Three, how can you teleport."

"i'll answer number two. paps is a sentry and undyne is his direct superior and he has to report to her. she's also his friend and he doesn't like lying to friends."

Grillby walked back over with two orders of fries. Nafi immediately dug into hers, staring at Sans as she waited for the answers to her other two questions.

Sans wasn't going to give her them though as he asked her, "let me ask you a question, have you heard of a talking flower?"

Nafi paused in her chewing and glaring, thinking of multiple things that could describe. She hesitantly nodded yes.

"so you heard of the echo flowers then?"

Nafi cleared her mouth. "That's what those are called? Anyway, you nev-."

"SANS!"

Nafi jumped, squishing the fry that was in her hand as she fought everything that said she needed to pull out her sword and attack.

"sup paps."

"HELLO HUMAN, DIDN'T EXPECT YOU HERE. I CAME TO RETRIEVE MY BROTHER."

She released a shaky breath and wiped the crushed fry on its brethren. "And I also have things to do. Thank you for the food." She placed some gold on the bar and grabbed a handful of her fries for the road as she left and walked back towards waterfall.

It took a while before she finally relaxed.

* * *

*ring ring*

"Hello?"

"I'M SORRY FOR SCARING YOU HUMAN."

"I'm ok now, don't worry."

"SAY, WE NEVER HAD A PROPER HANGOUT."

"I lived in your house for a week. I say that's a proper hangout."

"THEN MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HANGOUT WITH MY FRIEND UNDYNE."

"…Maybe later."

"OK THEN, THE ASGORE CLONE SAYS HELLO."

"Hello Toriel."

"Hello child."

"BYE!"

*click*

* * *

Nafi came across a statue. That in of itself wouldn't have been surprising given the history tablets everywhere, but it was being rained on and just looked so... sad. Looking ahead, she saw a basket of umbrellas and she had an idea. She walked over and grabbed a green umbrella. Walking back to the statue, she set the umbrella on the statue making it so that the sad looking statue was no longer rained on. Music started to play from the statue.

After listening to the sad melody it played for much longer than probably necessary, Nafi picked up an umbrella for herself and moved forward into the rain-cave the basket was meant for.

Kid ran up to her from an alcove in the wall farther into the downpour. "Can I come with? I can't carry an umbrella."

Nafi sighed and shrugged, "Sure."

Kid was too cute for his own good.

In silence they make their way through the rain, stopping only long enough to enjoy the view of the castle from the top of a large cliff.

They make it to the other side of the rain and Nafi puts the umbrella in another basket. Still, they walked together, until they reached a high ledge blocking the way. Nafi climbs up and turns back to Kid, "Need some help?"

He shakes his head, "No, I know another way."

He runs off, tripping onto his face, as Nafi continues onward.

She came to a maze like set of docks. Who made these docks? They need to be smacked for their idiocy.

She only took a few steps on to the wood before blue spears lanced through the dock in front of her. She pulled out her bow. Taking aim at Undyne below her, she activated her HUD.

Health: 1500, Attack: 50, Defense: 20

Her bow wasn't going to cut it.

"Son of a creeper-." She put away her bow and took off running down the maze of docks, dodging another set of spears. She sprinted as fast as she could, jumping over small gaps and dodging spears along the way.

Until she hit a dead end.

Nafi spun around to run back but saw Undyne blocking her way. She pulled out her sword, preparing to fight for her life like many times before. Papyrus would probably hate her but it's not like she wasn't already hated by people.

Undyne raised her hand and threw it back down, causing spears to cut through the dock. The section Nafi stood on shook and fell, sending her plummeting.

"Cheater!" She yelled as she fell into the dark abyss bellow.

* * *

"Frisk? That's a nice name. I'm sorry for mistaking you for Chara. Let's try this again, My name…. –"

* * *

Nafi woke up with a name she didn't know on her lips and a sorrow that came out of nowhere.

She looked around wildly, but no one was there.

"Hello?"

But nobody came.

She shook off her unease and checked to see if anything was broken. She fell on her front, so her cape was fine. The pile of flowers broke her fall, so she had lost very little health. What health she did loose was because…

"Oh no, no, NO!"

Her sword was in pieces.

...

Nether.

* * *

"Foolish, foolish, Fooli- ACK!"

Nafi grabbed the dummy by the nose, dragging it's face down to hers and glared into its eyes. "Look. I am NOT in the mood for this. Get out of my way."

The mad dummy flees.

(Napstablook fled too.)

* * *

Nafi took one look at Temmie Village… and walked away.

She valued her sanity.

* * *

As her surroundings got darker, Nafi pulled out a torch and lit it. She came up to a dead end, with only an echo flower. A curious tap revealed the phrase, "Behind you."

She activated her Hud immediately, revealing Undyne right behind her. She gripped her torch and prepared to attack. No sword, but that didn't mean-

"YO!" Kid interrupted her thoughts.

Both ladies looked over at Kid and the wall that he just busted through, shining a light into the dark hall.

"Undyne! Miss Nafi! Who are you two fighting?"

Undyne grabbed Kid and dragged him off as Nafi escaped through the new hole in the wall.

As Nafi crossed another bridge, Kid finally caught up with her.

"Hey, Miss Nafi? Is it true you're a human?"

She stopped, screwing her eyes shut. "…Yes…"

"Oh, well, um, I'm supposed to hate you. Do you think you can say something mean so I can?"

No, please don't make her kill you. "…"

"Oh… Well here goes nothing I guess. I-I hate you."

Please just go. "…"

"Who am I kidding, that was horrible. I'll just be going now."

Nafi turned to look back down the narrow bridge, just in time to see Kid trip off the side.

"KID!"

She sprung into action and ran back to grab him before he fell to far. Dragging him back onto the bridge, she fell onto her knees and gave him a big hug.

"You don't need to be someone because others tell you to. And you most definitely don't need to go falling off bridges because you don't meet other's standards," she told him.

Kid squirmed out of the hug, and Nafi noticed Undyne at the other end of the bridge. She stood up, reaching for a sword that wasn't there. She stared into Undyne's eye, knowing that she wasn't going to be able to win.

Kid spoke up, breaking the staring contest. "Yo. She may be a human, but I'm not letting you have my friend."

Nafi gave Kid a look at the word friend. What emotions it was meant to convey was lost as Undyne grabbed Kid again and dragged him off.

Nafi went in the opposite direction, hoping Kid would be alright.

Her paranoia reared its head again after that scene on the bridge. She had her HUD up, preparing for an ambush.

She didn't really need to do that though, because just as Undyne entered her range she started to speak.

"Seven. Seven human souls, and King Asgore will become a god. Six. That's how many we have collected thus far. Understand? Through your seventh and final soul, this world will be transformed. First, however, as is customary for those who make it this far... I shall tell you the tragic tale of our people. It all started, long ago..."

Nafi looked up at where Undyne was perched on a large rock. She already knew this story from Toriel, and so she focused on trying to sneak under Undyne. Until the helmet hit the ground right in front of her, causing her to jump back.

"... No, you know what? SCREW IT! WHY SHOULD I TELL THAT STORY WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE!? NGAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU! You're standing in the way of everybody's hopes and dreams! Alphys's history books made me think humans were cool... ...with their giant robots and flowery swordswomen. BUT YOU? You're just a coward! Hiding behind that kid so you could run away from me again!"

"I did not!" Nafi yelled in anger.

Undyne continued like she didn't hear, "And let's not forget your wimpy goody-two-shoes-shtick! Oooh! I'm making such a difference by hugging random strangers! You know what would be more valuable to everyone? IF YOU WERE DEAD! That's right, human! Your continued existence is a crime! Your life is all that stands between us and our freedom! Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! Everyone's been waiting their whole lives for this moment! But we're not nervous at all. When everyone puts their hearts together, they can't lose! Now, human! Let's end this, right here, right now. I'll show you how determined monsters can be! Step forward when you're ready! Fuhuhuhu!"

Nafi stared at her blankly. "I have multiple complaints about what you just said, but I do not care,"

She pulled out her bow and aimed, "Stand still please."


	6. Undyne

Nafi looked down the arrow shaft, lining up with Undyne's head. She fired her arrow straight and true, but Undyne jumped over it. Pulling out Nafi's soul and turning it fully green, Undyne descended from her perch. A green shield sparked into being in front of Nafi. Her mind screamed 'CREEPER' and her first reaction was to slam her bow into it as hard as she could. The bow shattered as her legs went numb, preventing them moving.

With panicked movements, Nafi deflected Undyne's decent with the new shield that wasn't a creeper. In an effort to move, she gyrated her hips, and with them her legs, turning around to face Undyne.

Now completely weaponless, almost motionless, and with one method of defense, there was no way Nafi could kill her enemy. That left one option. She steeled her determination and hoped for a chance to run.

Undyne summoned a spear out of the air and laughed, "As long as you're GREEN you CAN'T ESCAPE! Unless you learn to face danger head-on... You won't last a SECOND against ME!"

Nafi said nothing as she stared down the… fish? She hadn't realized what exactly she was fighting, and it came as a momentary surprise. The distraction was a mistake, as the next spear came from behind and pierced her shoulder.

"GAH," she exclaimed in pain. Plowing through the pain, she forced the shield into the path of the next spear, and the next, and the next. The spears around her were disappearing as they struck the shield, but the one in her shoulder did not. This fact gave her a weapon and an idea.

Undyne let up on the spears for a second, but only to call out, "Not bad! Then how about THIS!?"

That second was all Nafi needed to pull the spear in her shoulder out.

"Is this all you got?" Nafi yelled as she spun the shield to face the next barrage of spears, "It'll take more than this to take me down!"

Undyne snarled and ran forward, slamming the spear she held into the shield with enough force to send Nafi skidding back and almost making her fall over. The key word being 'almost'.

Undyne pressed the attack as she angrily yelled, "For years, we've dreamed of a happy ending… And now, sunlight is just within our reach! I won't let you snatch it away from us!"

Nafi responded by taking her bloody spear and trying to stab Undyne. She wasn't good at using a spear, but it caught Undyne off guard and managed to cut a gash in her armor.

Undyne jumped back, releasing Nafi from her green state, which returned her soul to its normal red/green coloration.

"NGAHHH! Enough warming up!" Undyne exclaimed as she summoned an, almost wall like, barrage of spears.

This is what Nafi was waiting for though, and she took off running, continuing down the path. Undyne took off after her, tossing more spears.

Undyne was fast, but Nafi was faster. They were running past a large sign saying, 'WELCOME TO HOTLAND' when Nafi's phone rang, surprising her into tripping and dropping the spear. Undyne stopped as Nafi pulled out the phone and answered, "Hello?"

"HELLO HUMAN! HAVE YOU CONSIDERED MY OFFER TO HANGOUT WITH UNDYNE?"

Nafi glanced behind herself as she stood up leaving the spear. She was surprised Undyne wasn't still chasing her at the moment, but she replied to Papyrus, "I'm actually running from her right now, so maybe later."

"ALRIGHT, I'LL MEET YOU OUTSIDE OF HER HOUSE AFTER YOU ARE FINISHED PLAYING TAG. BYE."

"Bye?"

*click*

Undyne called out from behind her, "You done yet punk?"

Nafi called back, "Didn't think you were this polite! But yeah, I'm done."

They stood there, looking at each other for a few seconds, before continuing their chase.

As the air became hotter and hotter, Nafi's wounded shoulder became more and more painful. They passed by Sans sleeping at a lookout station, Undyne stopping to yell at him for sleeping. Nafi ran across a bridge that was bridging the gap over the lava. On the other side an old water cooler sat, and she hoped that Undyne would stop long enough for her to wash her shoulder wound. Nafi slid to a stop, stumbled, and fell to her knees holding her shoulder in pain. She closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.

However, Undyne, who had successfully woken Sans up, wasn't fairing much better. Steam rose off her armor and she slowed down, never actually making it over the bridge.

"Too… Hot…" The fish monster groaned.

She fell over with a loud CLUNK, causing Nafi to look behind her. Nafi bit her lip and considered her options. Forcing herself to her feet and dragging herself over to the water cooler, Nafi retrieved a cup of water. She stumbled over to the cooking fish, where she poured the water on Undyne's head. Nafi didn't bother to see if Undyne recovered as she went back to the water cooler to get more water for herself. She poured the new cup of water on her wound, hearing Undyne get up and walk away. She started backtracking, passing by Sans. She tiredly waved as she passed by and continued back towards Waterfall.

"hey kid," Sans said, getting her attention and causing her to stop. He got up and walked over to hand her a roll of bandages. "you looked like you needed these."

Nafi nodded, "Thanks."

She walked back to the large sign and out of the burning heat, before sitting down to dress her wound with the bandage. Pulling the spear out was a risky move, but it had worked and didn't make too much of a mess of her shoulder on the way out. Didn't hit anything too important on the way in either, thank goodness for that. If it had gone any deeper, she might have permanently lost use of that arm. Which wasn't that bad since it wasn't her dominant arm, but she wouldn't have been able to use a bow for the rest of her life. Now, she just couldn't use a bow until it healed.

Wondering on what ifs never helped her though. What happened is what happened, and nothing could change that - or anything else for that matter.

Now that the wound was dressed and she wasn't in danger of bleeding out anytime soon, next on the agenda was finding Papyrus. Even if Undyne hated her guts, she couldn't bear to abandon Papyrus. That and Sans sacred her a little.

Where was Undyne's house again?

* * *

After walking back through almost half of Waterfall, Nafi eventually found Papyrus.

"I'm here," she said as she approached.

Papyrus, who was standing outside a fish themed house, turned to look at her and exclaimed, "YOUR HERE! I KNEW YOU WOULD COME." He then handed her a golden bone with a red ribbon tied to it, "GIVE HER THIS. SHE LOVES THESE."

Nafi took the bone as and inspected it Papyrus knocked on the door. The bone wasn't anything special.

"Hey Papyrus! Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?"

She decided that it must be food, and since she was hungry, she bit it. If it was to be given to someone else is couldn't be poisoned.

"YOU BET I AM. I EVEN BROUGHT A FRIEN- HUMAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING."

Nafi looked up with the bone in her mouth, seeing both monsters staring at her. Undyne wasn't wearing her armor anymore, and she looked much skinnier without it on. After removing the bone and wiping her mouth, she said, "I thought it may have been food. It wasn't."

There was a very awkward silence, but eventually Undyne ground out, "Why don't. You two. Come in?"

Undyne stepped back into her house, leaving the door open. Papyrus wiped his feet on the welcome mat before followingher. Nafi stood there with the bone, already regretting her decisions. She stepped inside.

The house had a tasteful blue and yellow floor with a kitchen on the opposite wall, a piano near the left wall, and a table and chairs near the right wall. It reminded Nafi painfully of her own home in some ways.

"MY FRIEND GOT A GIFT FOR YOU, ON THEIR OWN." Papyrus pulled out another golden bone and handed it to Undyne. "THIS ONE'S FROM ME THOUGH."

Nafi wiped off the saliva on the bone and handed it to Papyrus to hand to Undyne. Undyne took them and gave and awkward half smile, "Uh… Thanks. I'll put, uh, them with the rest."

She walked over to a drawer in the kitchen area and deposited them, trying not to touch the bitten one more than required. Once finished, she asked, "So are we ready to start?"

Papyrus started to speak almost before Undyne finished, "WHOOPSY DOOPSY, I JUST REMEMBERED! I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! YOU TWO HAVE FUN!"

He then charged at a window and jumped through it.

Undyne and Nafi looked at the broken window and then at each other.

Nafi asked, "Does he do that often?"

Undyne shook her head dumbly.

Eventually she recovered and spoke, glowering at Nafi, "So why are you here? To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further?"

"Because if I didn't Papyrus would be sad?" Nafi interrupted, "Trust me, I don't want to be here either."

Undyne seemed to glower even more at her, before giving a not friendly smile. "Oh-ho-ho-ho. I just had an idea. You're on MY battlefield now, and I'll TELL you what's going to happen. We're going to hang out. We're going to have a good time. We're going to become 'friends'. You'll become so enamored by me… YOU'LL be humiliated by your actions! Fuhuhuhuhu! It's the perfect revenge!"

Nafi had minutely flinched at the word 'friends', but now she just stared at Undyne, eyes half lidded. Undyne recovered from her revenge monologue, regaining composure and putting on a friendlier grin, "Erm...Why don't you have a seat."

Nafi walked over to the table and pulled out a chair to sit in, keeping one eye on Undyne at all times. Before she sat down, she noticed a giant sword laying on the ground on the other side of the table. She nodded in appreciation, saying, "Nice sword you got there."

Undyne chuckled, "Yeah. Humans suck, but their history… kinda rules. Case in point: THIS GIANT SWORD!"

Nafi barked out a laugh as she sat down, "Don't I know it. Some of the stuff we could make was awesome. My case in point: cars. Would have made my life so much easier."

"I don't see what's so good about them, but Papyrus loves them," Undyne shrugged," Well if you're comfortable, I'll get you a drink."

Undyne grabbed a few things out of her fridge. Out of the fridge came a white sugar container, a yellow bottle of stuff, a box labeled hot chocolate, and some tea boxes. "So, what do you want?"

Nafi studied her options. The sugar wasn't a drink, no clue what the yellow bottle was so that was out, and the hot chocolate box looked empty. That left one option.

"I'll have the tea, please."

Undyne smiled, "Coming right up!"

As Undyne busied herself making the tea, Nafi tried to think of something to talk about. Eventually she realized she had no ideas and she decided to ask Undyne, "So, what do we talk about?"

Undyne hummed in thought as she put the water on to boil. "One thing I was wondering, Papyrus mentioned Sans brought you in very injured. How did that lazybones hurt you that much, or was it something else?"

Nafi decided to answer truthfully, "I was on the other side of the Ruins door trying to 'convince' the caretaker to let me go when the door exploded and a part of it hit me in the head," Nafi leaned forward and started to whisper, "Although I do think he was the one to explode it, because I didn't hear anyone else on the other side."

The last part was met with a raised eyebrow, before the water started to boil. Undyne grabbed a cup from the sink, "Ok, it's done."

She poured some of the tea into the cup as Nafi leaned back into the chair. Undyne walked over and placed the tea in front of Nafi and sat opposite her. "Careful, it's hot."

Nafi blew on it and mimed taking a sip. She didn't think Undyne would appreciate her dropping the antidote into the tea, but she would also not appreciate her not drinking it, and if she wanted to make it through this, she had to make Undyne like her.

"It's good right? Nothing but the best for my ABSOLUTELY PRECIOUS FRIEND!"

Nafi awkwardly nodded as she mimed taking another sip, "It's pretty good."

Undyne laughed, "It's funny you like that tea, it's Asgore's favorite. But unlike him, you ain't no wimp!" She calmed down, "... Sort of."

Nafi put the cup down, "Well if he is the ruler down here, he has to be strong right? Stronger than just taking a spear to the shoulder and keep fighting at least?"

Undyne nodded, "Yeah. When I was younger, I was a pretty hot-headed kid. Once, to prove I was the strongest, I tried to fight Asgore," she smirked, "Emphasis on TRIED."

She looked off to the side, lost in memories. "I couldn't land a single blow on him! What's worse, the whole time, he refused to fight back! I was so humiliated... Afterwards, he apologized and said something goofy," She mimicked what Nafi could only assume was Asgore's voice, "'Excuse me, do you want to know how to beat me?' I said yes, and from then on, he trained me. One day, during practice, I finally knocked him down. I felt… bad. But he was beaming. I had never seen someone more proud to get their butt kicked." Undyne laughed and Nafi got the impression that Undyne viewed Asgore as family more than just a trainer.

Undyne calmed down and continued, "Anyway, long story short, he kept training me and now I'm the head of the Royal Guard. I'm the one to train dorks to fight! Like...uh… Papyrus."

During Undyne's trip down memory lane, Nafi had activated her HUD just to see if Undyne's stats changed any from not having her armor on. She didn't she didn't end up checking that as she immediately noticed Papyrus still outside the broken window. Something about that last part implied Undyne wasn't exactly happy about training Papyrus. If Undyne said anything about that with Papyrus within earshot… Papyrus would be heart broken.

Thinking quickly, Nafi asked, "Could I get a taste of how you train Papyrus?"

Undyne glanced at her, then stood up rapidly, "Hey, Papyrus was supposed to have his cooking lesson right now! Since HE'S not here to have it, You'll have to have it for him!"

She jumped into the air, surprising Nafi and causing her to hide under the table. Undyne hit the ceiling and landed on the kitchen counter. Running across it, she knocked everything except the tea pot off onto the floor.

"That's right!" she shouted, "Nothing has brought Papyrus and I closer than cooking! Which means if I give you his lesson, WE'LL BECOME CLOSER THAN YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE!"

She finally noticed the fact that Nafi was under the table, "Fuhuhuhu! Afraid? We're going to be best friends!"

"That's not what I'm worried about. It's what comes after," Nafi mumbled under her breath before Undyne jumped over and tossed the table to the side.

Undyne yelled, "Come on!" Before picking Nafi up and jumping over to the counter. She set her down and started instructing, "Let's start with the sauce."

Stomping her foot hard enough to shake the house, Undyne, somehow, caused two tomatoes, a carrot, and a banana to fall from the ceiling. "Envision these vegetables as your greatest enemy! Now, Pound them to dust with your fists!"

Nafi looked at the assembled food items and closed her eyes. With a scream, she punched one of the tomatoes with her full strength, splattering tomato all up the wall and breaking the counter.

Undyne laughed uproariously, "Nice! We'll scrape this into a bowl later."

She stomped again, leading to another pot and a box of spaghetti to fall onto the stove. She got excited and started yelling again, "Homemade noodles are the best, but I just buy store brand! They're the cheapest! NGAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Nafi looked at her with raised eyebrows until Undyne calmed down and said, "Uhh… just put them in the pot."

Looking at the box then at the pot, Nafi broke the box in half to make it fit inside the pot and dropped it in, noodles still inside the box. Undyne turned on the stove, the box inside immediately catching on fire. "I like your style! Now we stir, the harder we stir the better it is!"

"It's on fire!" Nafi exclaimed.

"Then I will!" Undyne replied as she pulled out a spear and stabbed the pot until it was a broken pile of metal and flames, "Now we turn up the heat! Let the flames symbolize your passion!"

"It's still on fire!" Nafi yelled.

"AND WE WANT MORE!" Undyne yelled back.

Undyne grabbed the stove knob and turned it so hard to the right, it came off. The fire grew higher and started to lick the walls, burning them and spreading the fire around the room.

Nafi looked at Undyne and said, "I know where Papyrus gets his cooking skills from."

In just a few seconds the house was ablaze. There was fire everywhere, along the walls, on the ceiling, even in the corners. Everywhere except, for some reason, the box in the pot.

Nafi shuffled towards the door as Undyne looked upon her burning house with a strained smile. "So, what's next?" the monster who just burned her own house down asked, "Scrapbooking? Friendship bracelets?"

"Getting out of the burr-." Nafi started only to be interrupted.

Undyne explosively sighed, "Oh who am I kidding, I really screwed this up, didn't I. I can't force you to like me, human. Some people just don't get along with each other. I understand if you feel that way about me. And if we can't be friends… that's ok. Because… If we're not friends..."

Undyne looked at Nafi with a bloodthirsty smile. "IT MEANS I CAN DESTROY YOU WITHOUT REGRET!"

Nafi jumped back as her soul came out preparing to run first chance. Undyne summoned a spear and pointed it at her, "I've been defeated... my house is in shambles… I even failed to befriend you. That's it. I don't care if you're my guest anymore. One final remac-."

Nafi interrupted Undyne this time, shouting "Are you INSANE?!"

She sprinted forward, dodging the spear, and hoisted Undyne over her good shoulder. Spinning around, Nafi adjusted her hold on Undyne and threw her like a javelin through the window Papyrus had gone through earlier.

Papyrus, who had been sitting outside the window the whole time, caught Undyne as she flew. "UNDYNE WHA-."

And then Nafi came out of the window, yelling, "Coming through!"

She hit Papyrus, causing him to fall over with Undyne in his arms and Nafi on top of him. Undyne pulled herself out from underneath the pile, only for the front of her tank top to be grabbed as Nafi pulled her back down again.

Nafi was pissed and showed it. At point blank range, she started yelling into Undyne's face, "Do you have any idea how STUPID that was?! How IDIOTIC you are being?! Was me running away from you SUCH a blow to your pride that you had to risk your LIFE to fight me in a BURNING BUILDING?!"

She let go of Undyne's shirt and backhanded her across the face sending her spinning away. Nafi wasn't done yet though, and so continued her tirade, "Pride is nothing to RISK YOUR LIFE FOR! Pride is the stuff that makes you do IDOTIC things just to make yourself feel better. Pride is the stuff that makes you think your better than you actually are. Pride is the stuff that makes you do things you wouldn't have wanted to do a month ago!"

Papyrus moved a bit under Nafi, reminding her that she was keeling on top of him. She rolled off him and stood up, walking away from the two. She stopped at the entrance to the rest of the caves and looked back.

"Pride gets people killed, and I've seen too much of that."

She walked away.

Undyne wondered why she was crying.

(The part that remembered the resets wondered what had happened to that pacifist she befriended, and why this girl seemed to know intimately what she was talking about.)


	7. Scientist and Creation

**A/N: I apologize profusely for taking so long for this. Many, many things happened but I got through it and have this chapter. I write a chapter in advance just for these cases where I have nothing to post, but I was stuck at almost the end of the next chapter that I thought I could hold off. Either way I'm here now and will endeavor to have the entire thing done by the end of March. (Also, I made Alphys a man. Letting you know so you don't get confused.)**

Nafi turned the last corner and the Hotlands sign came into view, including the small blood stain from where she had patched herself up. She sat down next to it, putting her head into her hands to hide the tears for a second.

She wanted to continue, she wanted to get out of here before she got stabbed in the back, yet she couldn't bring herself to move. No one was ever this nice. Even the monsters in Waterfall didn't seem to want to hurt her.

And the one that did, the one that she had felt the most comfortable with, the one that she didn't feel too guilty in trying to kill; she weaseled her way into Nafi's heart and then tried to kill herself.

This was why she didn't want to get attached. No one wants to help her; they want to be friends and discard her once she loses her usefulness. They only want to hurt her in whatever ways they could think of. Why did she think they were any better than the humans?

Papyrus probably already took Undyne to his house where they'll conspire on how to make-

"kid?"

Nafi looked up from her ball, glaring at Sans with as much hate as she could muster. It wasn't much given her emotional state.

Sans sat down next to her, opposite the small blood stain. Nafi buried her head back down into her arms as Sans asked, "what's wrong?"

She sat in silence for a few seconds, then murmured, "What do you want with me? What type of friends doesn't… doesn't... hurt?"

Sans sighed, "kid… nafi, i don't know much about what life's like on the surface, tori knows more than me. but we never lived it, you did. i don't know what all this 'friends hurt you' business is, but that's not how things work down here."

Nafi looked back up, tears dripping out of her eyes. "How do I not know your lying?"

Sans' permanent smile seems to fade slightly. "i could promise pinky promise you, but you probably wouldn't trust it either."

Raising her head, Nafi asked, "Pinky promise?"

Sans raised his hand and stuck out his pinky bones. "you stick out your pinky like this and the other party sticks out their pinky and you shake hands but just with your pinky."

Nafi chuckled at the childish action, but stuck her own pinky out saying, "This is crazy, but most things are crazy down here." Dropping her hands, she lost her earlier humor and continued, "I don't trust you, but I'll believe you for now."

"that's all you need to do," Sans said as he helped Nafi to her feet.

Nafi took a deep breath of the warm cave air and nodded. She walked back into Hotland, the bandage on her shoulder keeping most of the heat out.

Sans took his spot at his sentry station, looking after the human. Something happened on the surface to change things drastically, and he was certain it had something to do with the square eyes.

Walking past the water cooler, Nafi approached a three-way fork. One path was blocked by some guards, one seemed to lead to a river, and the last led into a large building marked, "LAB". Since the door was open and the other two paths were unhelpful, she entered the lab.

It was dark, the only light she had was a screen on one wall that showed her as she walked through the darkened lab. Then a yellow lizard wearing a white coat walked out of a side door, and the lights turned on.

The lizard turned towards Nafi and started walking before noticing her standing there.

"Oh. My lands," the lizard said, panicked, "I didn't expect you to show up so soon! I haven't showered, I've barely dressed, everything is messy, and…"

Nafi opened her mouth to say something as the lizard calmed himself down but found she didn't have much to say.

Calmed down, the lizard turned back to Nafi saying, "Umm… H-h-h-hiya! I'm Dr. Alphys. I'm Asgore's royal scientist!" Alphys seemed to panic again slightly, "B-b-b-but, ahhhh, I'm not one of the 'Bad Guys'! Actually, since you were dragged out of the Ruins, I've, um… been 'observing' your journey through my console."

Nafi interrupted, "Is that the big thing that's showing a real time picture of my face?"

Alphys blushed, "Y-y-yes. I was originally going to stop you but watching someone on a screen really makes you root for them. S-so, ahh, now I want to help you! Using my knowledge, I can easily guide you through Hotland! I know a way right to Asgore's castle, no problem!"

Not trusting the monster, Nafi asked, "Is there a catch? Do I have to answer questions or do tests?"

Alphys' eyes widened, "N-no, nothing like that, unless you want to. I am curious about things, b-b-but I want to help you first."

The room suddenly shook, knocking Nafi slightly off balance as Alphys mutters, "That doesn't sound good..."

The room shook again and Alphys quickly explained, "I forgot to mention that I had made an entertainment robot and ended up giving it some anti human measures."

The room shook a third time as Nafi yelled "What?!"

Alphys yelled back, "I tried to remove them! But I made a mistake and now Mettaton is an unstoppable killing machine and won't listen to me!"

The room shook a fourth and fifth time before the lights went out and Nafi heard Alphys whisper, "Oh no."

A robotic voice shouted through the dark "OOHH YES! DID I HEAR SOMEONE SAY QUESTIONS? WELCOME BEAUTIES…"

A bright spotlight turned on, illuminating a boxy robot holding a microphone. It brought the microphone up to the colored grid on its front and continued, "TO TODAY'S QUIZ SHOW!"

The rest of the lights came up suddenly, followed by a rain of confetti falling from the ceiling, multicolored lights projecting spinning circles on the walls, and a giant glowing sign lowering from the ceiling. The whole thing was a dizzying spectacle, and Nafi couldn't do more than stand there with her eyes closed as she adjusted to the rapid light changes.

The robot continued as Nafi stood there, "OH BOY, I CAN ALREADY TELL IT'S GONNA BE A GREAT SHOW! EVERYONE GIVE A BIG HAND FOR OUR WONDERFUL CONTESTANT!"

Nafi recovered as the robot clapped along with a recorded crowd clapping noise. Didn't Alphys call him Mettaton? She started backing up, trying to get out of the room, activating her HUD as she went.

Heath: 9999, Attack: 10, Defense: 999.

Ok, so basically immortal. Great.

"NEVER PLAYED BEFORE, GORGEOUS?" Mettaton asked, "NO PROBLEM! IT'S SIMPLE! THERE IS ONLY ONE RULE. ANSWER CORRECTLY..."

Nafi found her escape route blocked as Mettaton rolled into her path.

"OR YOU DIE!"

Nafi jumped back, landing just as her soul appeared and she was pinned in by laser beams on all sides. Mettaton rolled back to his starting position, and Nafi saw Alphys following behind and staying just out of sight. He would know the blind spots; he built the thing after all.

Mettaton pulled out a sheaf of papers, "LET'S START WITH AN EASY ONE! WHAT'S THE PRIZE FOR ANSWERING CORRECTLY?"

As he rattled off the options too fast for Nafi to keep up, Alphys in the back waved his hands to get Nafi's attention. Once Nafi looked over Alphys' way, he stopped waving and made a letter with her hands.

Confused, Nafi said out loud, "D?"

"RIGHT! SOUNDS LIKE YOU GET IT," Mettaton cheered as Alphys gave a thumbs up in the background.

So that's how this was going to work. Something seemed wrong, but if trusting Alphys got her through this then she would trust Alphys. For now, at least.

"HERE'S YOUR TERRIFIC PRIZE," the robot continued, "WHAT IS THE KING'S FULL NAME?"

The answer was obviously Asgore, but she didn't catch which letter that answer was. Alphys said C so Nafi answered, "C."

Mettaton cheered again, "CORECT WHAT A TERRIFIC ANSWER! ENOUGH ABOUT YOU. LET'S TALK ABOUT ME! WHAT ARE ROBOTS MADE OF?"

He seemed to be intentionally slurring his words on this one, but Alphys heard something that could be used.

"B."

"TOO EASY FOR YOU HUH? HERE'S ANOTHER EASY ONE FOR YOU..."

What followed was a long stream of words about trains, time, and math. Nafi didn't even catch when the answers were said as her attention drifted halfway through. She glanced over at Alphys just as he finished the calculation and gave the answer.

"D."

"WONDERFUL! I'M ASTOUNDED, FOLKS! NOW..."

A jar came flying out of nowhere and shattered on the floor, releasing a giant group of flies and scaring Alphys into hiding his head.

"HOW MANY FLIES WERE IN THAT JAR? A: 54, B: 53, C: 55, D:52."

The answers were legible this time, but with Alphys trying to clean up everything and not able to help, Nafi was on her own. Which letter hasn't been the answer yet?

"A?"

"CORRECT! WOW YOU'RE SO LUCKY TODAY! LET'S PLAY A MEMORY GAME," Mettaton pulled out a picture of a Froggit mostly covered, "WHAT MONSTER IS THIS? A: FROGGIT-..."

"A," Nafi interrupted. Alphys hid his face as Mettaton sent a beam of electricity into Nafi, yelling over Nafi's muffled screams, "WRONG! THAT'S MY FAVORITE SHIRT. THE ANSWER WAS D: ME."

He pulled the cover off the picture revealing Mettaton wearing a shirt with Froggit's face on it. Nafi shakily stood up, as he tossed the picture away and said, "WILL YOU GET THIS ONE? WOULD YOU SMOOCH A GHOST? A: HECK YEAH, B: HECK YEAH, C: HECK YEAH, D: HECK YEAH."

Alphys glared at Mettaton as Nafi facepalmed and sighed, "A."

"GREAT ANSWER! I LOVE IT! HERE'S A SIMPLE ONE. HOW MANY LETTERS IN THE NAME METTATONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN-?"

He seemed to glitch and get stuck on his name, but Nafi realized he was doing it on purpose when Alphys formed the letter C. How did he know the answer? Was he working with the robot?

Stay on topic Nafi, get through this first.

"C."

Mettaton snapped out of his fake glitch, saying "OF COURSE THAT WAS EASY FOR YOU! TIME TO BREAK OUT THE BIG GUNS. IN THE DATING SIMULATION GAME 'MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE' WHAT IS MEW MEW'S FAVORITE FOOD?"

He didn't even have time to give out the answers as Alphys yelled, "OH! OH! I KNOW THIS ONE! IT'S SNAIL ICE CREAM! IN THE FOURTH CHAPTER..."

And Nafi stopped paying attention, prioritizing putting her hands over her ears as Alphys voice echoed louder and louder in the long room. After the noise levels in the room died down, she removed her hands to catch what Mettaton said next, "-LPHYS, ALPHYS. YOU AREN'T HELPING OUR CONTESTANT ARE YOU? OHHHH YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME. I'LL ASK A QUESTION YOU'LL BE SURE TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO. WHO DOES DR. ALPHYS HAVE A CRUSH ON? A: UNDYNE, B: ASGORE, C: THE HUMAN, D: I DON'T KNOW."

Now she knew Alphys had lost control of this thing, he was so nervous there was no way he could have done this. Might as well be sort of nice then.

"D."

Mettaton shrugged, "CORRECT. ALPHYS HAS A CRUSH… ON THE UNKNOWABLE. SEE, ALPHYS BELIEVES THERE IS SOMEONE OUT THERE. SOMEONE WATCHING HIM. SOMEONE HE THINKS IS "CUTE" AND "INTERESTING". HELLO THEORETICAL PERSON. DR. ALPHYS LOVES YOU. TOO BAD YOU AREN'T REAL."

He laughed as Alphys glared at him again and Nafi stared at him in complete confusion. Alphys interrupted him, "H-Hey, I've done research about this. There are alternate universes out there! S-someday, maybe, I could meet them…"

Mettaton looked over at her, deadpanning, "YOU SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT "MEW MEW KISSY CUTIE". BUT I'LL GIVE YOU THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. PERSON, IF YOU ARE OUT THERE… HOW ABOUT GIVING US A SIGN, RIGHT NOW?"

Nafi surreptitiously pulled out her phone and randomly texted, "SOme1extAlpis". Not two seconds later, Alphys phone dinged. He pulled it out and looked at it, then stuffed it in front of Mettaton saying, "Look! Someone messaged me!"

"SO, SOMEONE DID… THAT SETTLES IT DOESN'T IT," Mettaton turned back to Nafi as she put her phone away, "WELL, WELL, WELL. WITH DR. ALPHYS HELPING YOU… THE SHOW HAS NO DRAMATIC TENSION! WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS! BUT. BUT! THIS WAS JUST THE PILOT EPISODE! NEXT UP, MORE DRAMA! MORE ROMANCE! MORE BLOODSHED! UNTIL NEXT TIME, DARLINGS…"

He then pulled his arms and wheel into his main box body and rocketed away. The lasers shut off and Nafi's soul disappeared.

The two left in the room looked at each other in silence. Eventually, Alphys broke it, "Well that was certainly something."

Nafi nodded and started heading for the other door.

"Wait, wait," Alphys said as he ran closer to Nafi, "Let me give you my ph-phone number! Th-then… m-maybe… if you need help, I could…"

He suddenly grabbed Nafi's phone. "Wh… Where did you get that phone?! It's ANCIENT! It barely has texting. Do you mind if I upgrade it?"

Nafi shrugged, "Sure, have fun. Just leave the numbers in there alone."

"Of course!"

Alphys walked over to her table and started working on the phone and Nafi stood there waiting. When Alphys was done, she came back and handed her the phone, saying, "It's been upgraded. It has better texting, item storage, it's got a keychain… I even signed you up for the Underground's No. 1 social network! Now we're officially friends! Ehehehe! Hehehe...heh..."

Nafi looked at the lizard as he stood there awkwardly. What is with down here and friends? Well, she guessed it made sense, everyone needed her soul to get out. It was just easier to help her get to someone who could easily kill her.

Alphys muttered, "I need to go to the bathroom," and walked back through the door he came from. Nafi turned around and walked through the door she had been heading towards.

Seconds after she left, her phone dinged. She pulled it out and read, "Alphys updated status: just realized i didn't watch undyne fight the human v. v"

Was this the social media? Just spilling what you did to everyone? No thanks.

She fiddled with her phone until she got it to mute the 'updates' and continued. Coming across a path of moving platforms, Nafi gingerly stepped onto one moving in the direction she wanted to go. She was thrown forward with a shout of surprise and fell to the ground when she stopped just as suddenly at the other end.

This wasn't going to be fun was it?

* * *

No, no it wasn't.

Moving paths that tossed her every which way, steam vents that propelled her over large gaps, and lasers that Alphys just barely managed to explain through his stutter, annoying block puzzles that were required to open doors, and the constant interruptions by other monsters wanting to fight over lava pits!

Nothing about this place was fun, and she hadn't even been walking for more than 20 minutes!

Finally, she reached a place that wasn't scorching hot. It was dark and she couldn't see, but she wasn't sweating out in the heat.

Ring… Ring…

Nafi picked up. "Hello?"

"H-hey," Alphys replied, "It's kinda dark in there, isn't it? Don't worry, I'll hack into the light system and brighten it up!"

A few seconds later the lights turned on revealing a kitchen.

Nafi heard Alphys say, "oh no," through the phone as she watched Mettaton rise from the floor in front of her.

"OH YES!" the robot exclaimed, "WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE- ACK!"

Nafi interrupted him by running up to him, using him as a springboard to get over, and running out the other end of the room; saying, "Nope," on repeat the entire time.

"HEY! GET BACK HERE! YOUR MY LOVELY ASSISTANT!"

"NO!"

Nafi kept running, passing by a large metal machine in the distance. She ducked into the first room she found and, finding it to be an elevator, pressed a random button. After a tense few minutes where nothing happened other than the elevator moving, her phone rang.

It was Papyrus.

She debated with herself a few moments before she declined the call.


	8. Hotland

Sans looked over towards the elevator as it opened. Nafi stepped out, expression almost unreadable, and trudged towards him. Reaching Sans' sentry station, she sat down, using the side of the station as a backrest.

"why the long face?" Sans asked.

Nafi didn't respond, just picked up a pebble and chucked it off the edge of the rock formation.

Sans watched as it flew into the lava, before turning back to Nafi as she did it again. Silently, he reached under his station for his hotdog supplies, grabbing a water sausage and dropping it into a bun.

"here kid," he said, "have some food."

Grabbing the faux hotdog, she set it beside her but didn't do much else.

Sans' phone received a new text from his brother.

"HAVE YOU SEEN METTATON'S NEW EPISODE YET?"

"no" he replied.

Papyrus sent him a link to UnderTube. The video was only one minute long and titled 'Mettaton the robotic catapult'.

It started with Mettaton rising out of the floor, Nafi standing stiffly off to the side, phone in hand.

"OH YES!" the recorded robot exclaimed, "WELCOME, BEAUTIES, TO THE- ACK!"

Interrupting him, Nafi exploded into action, using him as a springboard to get over and away. The muffled "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope," overshadowed by an obviously edited BOING noise.

Nafi jumping was then repeated at a slower speed, the video zooming in on Mettaton's front as he was tipped over by Nafi's foot, the surprised exclamation funnier in slow-mo.

Sans glanced down at Nafi, but she didn't seem to have moved more than to find more pebbles. He looked back to his phone when another text came in.

"I TRIED TO CALL HER TO CONGRATULATE HER FOR GETTING ON TV, BUT SHE DIDN'T PICK UP. I THINK I MAY HAVE ACCIDENTALLY INSULTED THE HUMAN SOMEHOW."

"i'll talk with her"

Sans sighed, running a hand down his face. How was he going to approach this topic? He looked down at Nafi.

She wasn't there, only the untouched hotdog sitting there showed any semblance that she had been there at all.

Sighing, Sans dropped his head into his hands.

* * *

Nafi ignored her phone as it kept ringing every few steps. She wanted out of this place and she wanted out now.

Sure, she avoided getting yelled at for embarrassing the celebrity for now, but eventually she was going to have to pick up the phone to help solve a puzzle.

If there wasn't a mob of monsters coming to lynch her right now anyway.

Either way, two puzzles in and she was doing well. Up ahead were two royal guards, but a thrown pebble was a simple enough distraction that she was able to slip past. Soon, she was confronted by another dark room.

Going by what happened last time she came upon a dark room, it was most certainly a trap. She stared into the dark opening, thinking of how to go about getting through this one. Facepalming, she realized she has a console with ways that could get her through this. She looked around, making sure no one was watching, before summoning it and inputting two commands.

/effect give Nafriskenta invisibility 120

/effect give Nafriskenta night_vision 120

Nafi held up her hand and could see right through it and her arm into the not dark room. Taking a second to check all of her was invisible, she stepped into the room and silently made her way through to the other side. Once out of the room, the dark behind her became dark to her eyes once more and a glance at her hand confirmed the invisibility wore off too.

That probably wouldn't work against multiple monsters but good to know it worked against robots.

Ducking into the next elevator, she took a moment to relax before hitting the button for the next floor.

Her phone rang, again.

She buried it deeper in her cape pockets.

The elevator opened and she stepped out into an area that, compared to the sweltering heat of the rest of Hotland, felt like the border between Snowdin and Waterfall. The path she was on led to a small table before continuing. Nafi headed over to the table, noticing a monster holding some sort of baked good. On the table was more baked goods and behind the table was what looked like a human crossed with a spider.

"Welcome to our parlor dearie~" the spider person said, "Interested in one of our spider pastries? All Proceeds go to real spiders~"

Nafi looked at the prices for the treats and stared at the gigantic numbers.

"Uh, no thanks. I'm good."

She hurried away onto the next puzzle as her phone rang again.

* * *

After another double block puzzle, she came up to a large purple building. Sniffing the air, Nafi was reminded of the one time she explored an abandoned mineshaft. It may have been many, many years ago, but she never forgot the smell of spiderwebs.

She shook off the bad memories, palmed an arrow in her good hand, and headed inside.

Suddenly a voice sounded from around her, echoing above the sound of spiders moving around, "Ahuhuhuhu… Did you hear what they just said?"

Even in the darkened room, Nafi could see her path ahead. She hurried forward, trying to ignore the soft voices coming from all around.

"They said a human wearing a striped shirt will come through."

She stepped into a web and almost fell forward onto her face.

"I heard that they hate spiders."

She stepped into more webs, the arrow not doing much to cut her free.

"I heard that they love to stomp on them."

She stepped into even more webs, slowing down considerably. Her rising panic didn't stop her from wondering how you were supposed to stomp on a spider.

"I heard they like to tear their legs off."

She stepped through so many webs that she was barely moving now, panic preventing her from even questioning how someone would even go about tearing spiders' legs off.

"I heard…"

She couldn't move as the spider person from earlier stepped next to her.

"... that they are awfully stingy with their money. Ahuhuhuhu."

Nafi whipped her head around, searching for the spider's glowing red eyes in the darkness. Where were they?!

"You think your tastes are too refined for our pastries, don't you dearie?"

Nafi, desperate to see how many spiders she was dealing with, interrupted the spider person, "Where are your spiders then?"

The soft sound of scuttling stopped abruptly, terrifying Nafi even more. The spider person deadpanned, "Are you blind?"

Nafi looked back, panicked and confused in equal measures, "No? I just don't see any spiders?"

The spider person was now also confused, "You- How do you not see any spiders? They're all around you."

Nafi looked around again ignoring the tiny monsters sitting in the webs, "Then where are the glowing red eyes?"

"Glowing eyes? Why would we need glowing eyes? We can see perfectly fine in the dark."

"Well obviously you can't because there are no spiders here."

"Of course, there is! Right here! Practically on top of you!"

"Even without the glowing eyes, I think I would be able to spot two-yard-long spiders on me."

"Two yards? I think you mean two inches."

"Where are you getting that? Have you ever seen a spider before or does inch mean something different?"

"I am a spider! We are surrounded by spiders! What are you talking about?!"

"Spiders of course! They're gigantic, have glowing eyes, and want to eat my face off!"

"Your face doesn't even look tasty?"

"Tell that to a spider!"

The spider person buried her face in her many hands and screamed in frustration. "Just, just go. I can no longer deal with you."

The webs let Nafi go and she ran out the door, dodging the tiny spider-look-a-like monsters on her way out.

She sprinted so fast Mettaton never even had a chance to start his cameras before she was past his vantage point.

Once out onto the normal rocky pathways of Hotland, Nafi stopped just long enough to quietly say, "Monster plants, skeletons and spiders. Just need the zombies and we'll have the whole set."

She took the next left up some stairs and up to a building obviously created in honor of the robot after her. Standing next to the building was Sans.

Nafi slowed to a stop next to the doors, and because he was standing next to them, also Sans.

"hey kid, what's the rush?"

Nafi glanced at him. Her phone rang. She ignored it.

Sans sighed, "you know everyone is worried about you."

"Shouldn't you be more worried about the celebrity?" she scoffed.

"celebrity? metta has maybe 20 people watching him on a good day. besides, he needs the pin in his ego sometimes."

Nafi gave him a more thorough look.

Sans held out his hand, "how about grabbing some dinner with me, tori, pap, undyne, and alphys first, then you can keep going."

Sans was calling to make things right.

Nafi answered the call.

* * *

Nafi dutifully ignored the fact that Sans teleported her through a wall, and took in the sight of Toriel, Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys clustered around a table.

She observed each one as they interacted.

Toriel seemed to be silently laughing at something, or maybe it was a slight concern. She had the same hand to the mouth gesture for both emotions.

Papyrus was angry, but it was the anger he had at Sans's puns, so not actually angry.

Undyne and Alphys were looking away from each other, Alphys even going the extra mile and hiding his face in his hands. Nafi couldn't see Undyne's face as she was looking away, so whatever was going on there she couldn't say.

"so, I found her," Sans said from beside her.

Everyone looked over and Nafi, even with Sans's reassurances, expected to see anger or resentment. Although now that she could see Alphys's and Undyne's faces the blushes were readily apparent, wonder what they had been talking about?

There was anger nowhere to be seen, in fact the most common emotion was joy. Toriel and Papyrus both even jumped up and ran over for a hug with a cry of "Nafi!" / "HUMAN!" respectively.

Nafi braced herself as the two monsters slammed into her, locking her jaw to quiet the twinge of pain from her bad shoulder. That didn't stop Toriel from noticing the bandages. "Your hurt!" she cried.

Undyne spoke up in the background, "Uh, that's my fault."

Nafi replied, "I saved you from a burning building, I'd say we're even."

Alphys asked "Is that why your home is on fire?" as Toriel carefully dragged Nafi over to the table, Sans and Papyrus followed close behind.

Nafi sat down and Toriel got to work on healing her shoulder, stopping just long enough for Nafi to pull out some food bars. Between bites, she asked, "So what were you talking about?"

Papyrus answered first, "TORIEL IS JUST AS FULL OF PUNS AS MY BROTHER! AND THE FACT ALPHYS THOUGHT THIS WAS A DATE WITH UNDYNE."

Nafi blinked as Alphys and Undyne blushed, swallowed what was in her mouth and said, "Have fun then."

Everyone looked at her and she continued eating, until she asked, "Is that not what you say when someone is getting married?"

About three people all said "No?" at the same time.

Papyrus shook off his confusion first, "HUMAN, DID I OFFEND YOU?"

Now it was Nafi's turn to ask, "No?" Although it came out more like "Mnu?" as her mouth was full.

"WHY DID YOU NEVER PICK UP?"

"I expected yelling and screaming and didn't want to stop to listen."

Alphys spoke up, "About what?"

"The general offended yelling when someone embarrasses a celebrity. Though Sans said he isn't so…" Toriel finished healing Nafi's arm, allowing her to shrug.

Alphys blinked. "He's the underground's only celebrity. H-humans actually react like that?"

The other monsters at the table voiced similar disbelief.

"I WOULDN'T WANT TO BE A CELEBRITY THEN. I WANT TO DEFEND MYSELF."

"seriously? i found it funny."

"Chara didn't mention anything like that. Then again maybe he didn't know."

"Humans must have bigger heads than I thought! Embarrassment is funny!"

Nafi scoffed, "Have as long as I've been alive, and I was born in 42XX."

"F-f-f-42XX! The current year is 20XX," Alphys exclaimed, "W-what the heck happened!"

Nafi looked at Alphys in shock and everyone looked at Nafi in shock.

The silence stretched out for almost a minute before Sans finally found his voice, "how long ago was the last earthquake?"

Alphys looked at Sans and pulled out a notebook, flipping through frantically as Nafi answered, "2200 years, the anniversary was just a few days ago. What does this have to do with me going back in time?"

Alphys answered before Sans did, "Because you didn't go backwards, we went forwards."

The silence came back for one more beat before Toriel shakily asked, "Explanation please?"

Alphys rambled out an answer, "The earthquake was 20 years ago our time and 2200 years her time and when the earthquake happened the Core went into flux and I could never find out what it did because we never got more energy or lost power but multiple other machines went absolutely crazy including a few that the previous royal scientist made that I have no idea what they do but if we all got put into time stop then that makes so much more sense because nothing has been falling down into the trash pit since the earthquake and OH MY GOSH I need to get back to my lab and write this down!"

He dashed from the table, everyone else calling out for him to stop. Nafi stuffed the rest of her food into her mouth and took off after him.

She saw him entering an elevator in the corner just as it closed behind him. She ran over and pried open the doors, jumping onto the opposite wall and letting the doors slam shut behind her. Sliding down after the quickly moving elevator, she realized the consequences of her rash decision.

Thinking quickly, she pushed off the wall, wrapped the ends of her cape around her hands, and grabbed the cable holding the elevator.

Her hands didn't exactly escape unscathed, but she was lowering and much more controlled speed.

And now that she had a moment to think, she realized that she didn't remember an elevator anywhere near Alphys's lab, much less one that led straight to the top.

The elevator stopped and Nafi lowered herself down to the roof hatch and opened it to get inside. Dropping down, she hit the button for the doors to open and stepped out into a dark and ominous medical room.

Alphys was nowhere in sight

"Son of a Creeper's spore sack."


	9. True Laboratory

"Entry Number 1. This is it… Time to do what the King has asked me to do. I will create the power to save us all. I will unleash the power of the Soul."

"Entry Number 2. The barrier is locked by Soul power. Unfortunately, this power cannot be created artificially. Soul power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we already have… The Souls of monsters"

"Entry Number 3. But extracting the Soul from a living monster would require incredible power… Besides being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the Soul's host. And, unlike the persistent Souls of humans… The Souls of most monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster's Soul last."

"Entry Number 5. I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human Souls. I believe this is what gives their Souls the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living… The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power… 'Determination.'"

Alphys's voice echoed from screens in the wall as Nafi walked past. It had never really clicked that he was a scientist, not just an engineer. The notes brought that fact to light, in Nafi's opinion, in the worst way possible. Experimentation never sat well with Nafi, mostly from stories of what the scientists Pre-Changing did to people as the strength formula was developed, even if they were all made up fiction.

Even if she was nervous, she had a mission. Alphys was still somewhere in here, and he had answers to her questions. And he would answer, she would make sure of it.

Leaving the hallway of screens, Nafi entered a bigger room with a large door across from her. It was labeled 'Power Room' so unless the power was out Alphys was probably not in there. There was an odd machine with food in it and two other paths, one to the left and one to the right. Nafi glanced at the machine and went left.

"Entry Number 6. Asgore asked everyone outside the city for monsters who had 'Fallen Down'. Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose… and soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject 'determination' into them? If their Souls persist after they perish, then… Freedom might be closer than we all thought."

Nafi walked into a new room. Operating tables were lined up against the wall with an odd fluid she refused to touch staining their surface. She spotted sinks on the other side of the room and, feeling dirty just looking at the tables, walked over to wash her hands.

Another screen played its message on the way.

"Entry Number 9. Things aren't going well. None of the bodies have turned into dust, so i can't get the Souls. I told the families that I would give them the dust back for funerals. People are starting to ask me what's happening. What do I do?"

Nafi shivered as the last of Alphys's voice echoed through the room. Did she pity him? Did she fear him? For the time being, she wanted to wash her hands.

She went to the sink farthest away from the stuff-covered tables and turned it on.

It was not water.

She backed up against the opposite wall as the white goo flowed out of the faucet and into the bowl, wriggling and gurgling as it did. Soon it was overflowing the sink, pulling itself into three odd spherical shapes. Nafi stood aghast at the pulsing, pained faces that made up the gooey creatures, until her Soul was revealed, and she realized they weren't just going to stand there.

Yet...her HUD gave her nothing. What-?

She gripped her ears as the things let out a horrible blast of static, distracting her from the odd white dots that surrounded her. Finally noticing when they exploded into odd wiggling faces, she sidestepped around each of them until they stopped.

Her phone made noise and she grabbed it.

There were voices. She didn't recognize them. "Come Join The Fun."

The dots started again, and she said as she dodged, "I would rather not."

They stopped, her Soul disappeared as the creatures left her alone and entered another room next to the sinks, leaving behind a red key. Nafi picked a different sink to wash her hands in and after finishing, investigated the room. A small slot was the only thing in the room besides the creatures, so she headed back the way she came.

Then came back and inserted the key into the slot when the right side was blocked by a door.

* * *

"Entry Number 12. Nothing is happening. I don't know what to do. I'll just keep injecting everything with 'determination'. I want this to work."

"Entry Number 13. One of the bodies opened its eyes."

"Entry Number 14. Everyone that had fallen down… has woken up. They're all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners…?"

"Entry Number 15. Seems like this research was a dead end… But at least we got a happy ending out of it…? I sent the Souls and the vessel back to Asgore. And I called all the families and told them everyone's alive. I'll send everyone back tomorrow."

"E-entry Number 16. No no no no NO NO NO NO NO!"

As Alphys's recorded screams of denial echoed with a disturbing finality to them, Nafi stared at a giant head like machine, and next to it, another odd goo creature that was staring right back.

Nafi called out, "Hello?"

It opened the tooth filled mouth that sat on top of the sinuous body. "Welcome to my special hell," echoed in a dozen different voices as Nafi's Soul was revealed.

Nafi threw herself to the side as it tried to bite down on her, mind trying to think on how to get out of this.

She tried humming, the body reminding her of a monster called Shyren she had met in Waterfall. It shook but didn't do much else.

She flexed her arms in front of her to block odd flashing projectiles. It flexed back.

She backed away. It left the way she came.

Time to explore before it comes back.

In a room off to the side, there was a video paused on a TV. Nafi pressed play.

A voice that wasn't Alphys came out, "I... I don't like this idea, Chara."

Nafi almost said what came next before it did. "You're crying."

"Wh... what? N-no I'm not…"

"I know the solution to this. Repeat after me. 'Big kids don't cry.'"

"...Big kids don't cry."

"Better?"

"Yeah, you're right."

"Did you doubt me?"

"No! I'd never doubt you, Chara… Never!"

"Then don't doubt the-"

Nafi turned off the TV. Whoever this Chara was or wherever he is, Nafi would never want to know why they sounded alike.

* * *

"Entry Number 19. The families keep calling to ask when everyone is coming home. What am I supposed to say? I don't even answer the phone anymore."

"Entry Number 20. Asgore left me five messages today. Four about everyone being angry, one about this cute teacup he found that looks like me. Thanks, Asgore."

"Entry Number 21. I spend all my time at the garbage dump now. It's my element."

"Sno...wy…"

Nafi looked back at the sudden shift in voice to see Snowdrake. Except it wasn't, it was melting all over the floor.

Nafi thought quickly and hesitantly told a joke, "I got hit in the face with a snowball recently, it left me out cold."

It laughed, "I ...remember…"

She told another one, "What did the snowman say to the bird? I have Snow idea."

It laughed some more, "Thank… you…" and scooted away.

The room past what Nafi could only assume was Snowdrake's mother was empty, so she headed back.

* * *

"Entry Number 11. Now that Mettaton's made it big, he never talks to me anymore… Except to ask when I'm going to finish his body. But I'm afraid if I finish his body, he won't need me anymore… Then we'll never be friends ever again… Not to mention, every time I try to work on it, I just get really sweaty…"

Nafi ignored the message playing again as she left the giant dog creature. This path was a bust.

"Entry Number 7. We'll need a vessel to wield the monster Souls when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the Souls of other monsters. Just as a human cannot absorb a human Soul… So then… What about something that's neither human nor monster?"

"Entry Number 10. Experiments on the vessel are a failure. It doesn't seem to be any different than the control cases. Whatever. They're a hassle to work with anyway. The seeds just stick to you, and won't let go…"

Nafi asks, "Please don't hurt me?" to the large bird-like creature. It says a few lines and walks away. No Alphys here either.

One last place, the door at the beginning.

Except, Nafi never actually had to check the door, she met Alphys on the way there.

"O-oh…" Alphys said, staring at Nafi in shock, "I... I didn't expect you down here…"

"I have a lot of questions," Nafi started as Alphys seemed to shrivel up on himself, "The least of which is about the goo creatures."

Alphys looked up at that, asking, "You-ou don't h-hate me for the A-amalgamates?"

The Amalgamates scooted into the room at the mention of them.

"I'll let you know when I figure it out," Nafi said as the elevator dinged as it deposited the rest of the people who had been at the table.

Reactions were mixed as everyone looked at the gooey monster mixes.

Sans and Undyne stood there in silence, and while Sans didn't give anything away, Undyne's face was a mask of horror.

Toriel just gasped in sorrow, "Oh my…"

Papyrus locked eyes with Snowdrake's mother and quietly, for him anyway, asked, "ICEDRAKE?"

Alphys wilted yet again. Staring at the floor, he quietly admitted, "I guess I have some explaining to do."

* * *

Everyone was gathered in the room full of beds, mostly because there weren't enough chairs for the five monsters, one human, and four Amalgamates.

Alphys was trying to hide in plain sight after he had just finished explaining everything. Everything that led up to the creation of the Amalgamates. Everything that happened after.

Everyone else had much the same reaction: silent contemplation.

Papyrus broke the silence first, "YOU TRULY REGRET WHAT YOU DID?"

Alphys nodded, mumbling an affirmative.

"THEN YOU NEED TO TRY AND FIX IT," he continued.

"But HOW?" Alphys almost screamed as he unfolded, startling everyone, "I've already ruined my chance by keeping them down here this long with nothing to show for trying to fix this! Nothing I do works, and no one is going to forgive me, I can't even forgive myself! I-I'm afraid t-to…"

He sunk back down, hiding in his hands, "I'm afraid I'll...do something… cowardly."

Nafi clenched her jaw as she realized just what Alphys was referring to. Undyne must have realized it too as she ran over to give some sort of comfort, Papyrus right behind her.

Ignoring what was going on, Nafi looked over at where Snowdrake's mother was trying, and failing, to pet the large dog. Yes, Alphys made a mistake in not saying anything. He regrets that mistake every day, and apparently is so torn up that he would do something drastic just to escape his imaginary glares.

She looked back over to the cuddle pile that had grown much larger and cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"What are you planning to do now?"

Alphys extracted himself from the pile, looking in the direction of the floor. "I need to tell everyone about what I've done. It's going to be hard… Being honest... Believing in myself…"

Nafi knelt to get on eye level with the lizard. "Look at me," she said and waited for him to look up, "You can do this. You are smart, you have done great things. If you need help, we'll be right behind you."

A wet hand plopped itself on her shoulder and she added, "Them too apparently."

Alphys smiled and looked around, "Thanks guys."

Nafi stood up as the others chimed in, "Your welcome." She looked around for a moment before asking, "Now that we have dealt with that, can we get to the reason we came down here in the first place?"

Alphys blinked in confusion before remembering what he came down there to do. "Oh! Oh yeah, I was getting papers to explain."

He pulled out a folder from underneath his lab coat, spreading the pages on the bed behind him.

"So, first, the previous royal scientist made a bunch of stuff, not all of it I could figure out what it did. When the earthquake happened, the first thing I did was make sure the Core wasn't going to explode. It wasn't but for some reason the power it was producing was much larger than it should have. Then I noticed a bunch of other gadgets were going bonkers," he pointed at some papers that had lines going every which way, "And after a few seconds they stopped, most of them even stopped working entirely. Now, I don't know what they did, but whatever they were tracking suddenly went up A LOT. The only way that could happen was if a lot of it happened all at once. My previous theory was just a lot happened at once. My current theory is that the excess energy from the Core got funneled into the Barrier and that caused the Barrier to hold us not only down here, but in time as well. Then the energy was used up and we were released. That's just a theory, but it's the best theory I've got."

There was silence as the, finally understandable, explanation processed.

Nafi spoke first, "Well, that explains things."

Everyone looked at each other, then Alphys looked at Nafi, "I would love to test this, but Mettaton isn't going to let anyone get to New Home until he has his fight with you."

Nafi nods, "If it's a fight he wants, a fight he will get." she smirked, "Let's go."


	10. NOTICE

THIS IS NOT A CANCELLATION NOTICE! Ok technically it is but not like your thinking. I have written everything, the entire story is down on my laptop just waiting to be posted, with a few issues.

I am a horrible planner. Back when this story was conceptualized (in 2016!) the entire thing was planned from exactly how Nafi would interact with the characters to the ending to where every character would end up.

Around chapter 3 this plan was thrown out the window, including the original ending. What I could salvage together of the old ending stuck until chapter 5 and then I changed it again. That held until chapter 8 when I changed it again. Then I actually wrote chapter 10, the chapter before the epilogue, and the ending that came out of my fingers was entirely different!

Normally, this wouldn't matter, except that as the ending changed so did the foreshadowing and the themes. If you read the chapters listed I'm almost certain you can tell when the ending changed.

So that means I have to rewrite everything currently published.

(That and the grammar and pacing is an absolute mess)

I feel horrible for just deleting what I have already published though, I put so much effort into getting this out of my head and down onto a page for you to read. So "Friends Are Useful" is no longer being written.

"Separation" However is entering the final draft.

"Friends Are Useful" was always supposed to be a placeholder title until I could come up with something better, except I never did. Now that the entire thing is written, I have an appropriate title.

When this note is published, the first chapter of "Separation" will be already out. The plot will follow much the same path, but I hope my writing style will have evolved over the years to make it an enjoyable reread.

As of this going up, the entire thing is written and when you find this the entire thing may be published as well.

See you there,

Multi.

(Guest Wolfliker, here is the answer to your question)


End file.
